Coming Undone
by Cheap Trixie
Summary: Liberty Dixon is the uber-smart, 13 yr old daughter of Merle, and niece of Daryl. She's just living the life of a fairly normal teenage girl, trying to get by with her drunken father and hard working uncle. But when strange things begin to happen and the whole world goes to hell, her life becomes a fight for survival and suddenly its not so simple anymore.
1. Chapter One

**Authors Note's: Okay, so this is my first Walking Dead story ever, and its just an idea that got stuck in my head and wouldn't go away. But there are a few things I need to say really quick. First, Daryl is going to seem a little OOC when it comes to Liberty. I feel like since she's his niece and he raised her, he'd treat her differently than he treated other people. Second, this starts about six weeks or so before the disease started to spread. I think i have the time line right, but I'm not sure.**

**Disclaimer: I own Liberty Dixon and her classmates and teachers. Nothing else belongs to me!**

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**April 19****th****, 2011-**

"Liberty Belle!" My Uncle Daryl rapped two short knocks on my bedroom door. "If you're wantin' a ride to school from me, you better get your ass in gear, girl!"

I groaned and rolled over, looking at my digital clock. It was 6:30 and he had to be at the packing plant where he worked by 7:30. I had slept through my alarm, _again_, and if I didn't hurry, I'd be stuck taking the bus.

"Libby?" He knocked again.

"I'm up." I said, struggling to untangle myself from my blankets. "I'll be out in a few minutes.

I listened as he moved away from door and I finally managed to pull my leg free from a twisted sheet. I climbed from my bed and pulled out some clothes from my dresser. As I stood in front of my mirror, I grimaced at what I saw: a mousy looking girl of thirteen, with messy light brown hair, blue eyes, and freckles. Pulling off my pajamas made me even more depressed. There were girls in my eighth grade class who could pass for seventeen or eighteen years old, where as I, flat as a pancake and shapely as a stick, looked like a fourth grader. I'd had my period for over a year, but a woman I was not.

After I dressed and brushed my hair back into a ponytail, I crept, silent as death, down the hallway and past my father's room. I could hear him in there snoring, no doubt sleeping off last night's bender.

Uncle Daryl was waiting for me in the kitchen.

"We have to stop meeting like this." I joked. He raised an eyebrow and pushed an already made bowl of cereal across the table to me.

"I'm leavin' in twenty minutes." He said. I sighed at his lack of humor and sat down to eat.

He sat across from me as I ate, impatiently tapping his fingers against his worn jeans.

"You don't have to wait for me, you know." I told him.

"I have a little time." He said. "And anyway, I don't like you riding that bus."

I nodded as I slurped the last of the milk from my bowl. We lived in Wildflower Ridge trailer park, a stupid name for the place as there were no wildflowers and no ridges. It was the roughest part of Deerwood, the town we lived in, and riding the bus from there could be a scary thing for a pipsqueak like me.

Maybe I should explain something now. I'm smart. I don't mean to sound stuck up, but it's just a fact. The school tested my IQ in the sixth grade and it came back as 196. 160 is considered a genius. I had the highest grades in my class and I always made the high honor roll. In fact, the summer before, I'd made it into the top 1% of the kids in the state and had been invited to a special summer camp in Valdosta, where I'd spent two wonderful weeks at the university there with other gifted kids. My Dad hadn't wanted me to go, but Uncle Daryl had somehow talked him around. I was hoping to get to go again. It was nice to be just a smart kid, instead of another one of those damn Dixon's.

I don't know where I got my brains. My father dropped out of the ninth grade and can barely read, and my mother, who took off when I was four, wasn't too bright either, from what I can remember. Uncle Daryl has a lot of common sense, but he isn't book smart. I used to think that maybe there was a mix up at the hospital when I was born and my parents accidently brought the wrong little girl home. I told Uncle Daryl that once and he actually grinned, a rare thing for sure, and told me no such luck. I was a Dixon, through and through.

"I'm ready." I told him as I came back into the front room after brushing my teeth and grabbing my backpack. I pushed my feet into my worn sneakers and looked up to see my uncle holding out my red hoodie.

"It's kinda chilly out there this morning." He told me as I took it and put it on.

"Thanks."

I sat in the passenger seat of his old pickup and leaned my forehead against the cool glass of the side window.

"You get all your homework done?" Uncle Daryl asked me as we back out of our driveway. Though there was no amusement in his voice, I knew he was teasing me.

"Of course." I said. "I finished my paper on Elizabeth Barrett Browning for English."

"Right." He nodded as we pulled out onto the highway. "I have no fucking clue who that is."

I grinned at his choice of wording. "She was an English poet of the Romantic movement." I explained.

"The only poem I know is 'There Once Was a Boy from Nantucket"." He told me and I wrinkled my nose.

"I've never heard that." I told him. "How does it go?"

He cracked the window and lit a cigarette. "Never mind."

I shook my head and sighed. I would ask my best friend, Hilary. She had four older brothers and would most likely know.

We pulled up in front of the Deerwood Junior High.

"Here." Uncle Daryl fumbled for his wallet, handing me a five dollar bill. "For your lunch."

"Thanks." I said. I slid across the seat and gave him a quick kiss on his stubbly cheek. "Love you, Uncky." I said, reverting back to my baby nickname for him.

He tugged on my ponytail. "Love you too, kid." He said, gruffly. He looked at me as I climbed out of the cab. "I'll be here when I get off work, okay?"

I smiled. "All right. Have a good day."

"You too."

I watched as he pulled away from the curb and then I turned and headed inside. Since I usually got to the school at about 7:15, there were hardly any other students there. I made my way towards my favorite place, the library.

"Good morning, Libby." The young librarian, Ms. Fischer, smiled at me from behind her desk.

If I had to pick a favorite staff member, it would be her. She was young, only in her mid-twenties and very pretty. Uncle Daryl and I had seen her once when we were grocery shopping at Deerwood Superfood Town and his eyes had nearly fallen out of their sockets.

"Hey, Ms. Fischer." I said, pulling up a chair at my favorite table.

"Did you finish your paper on Barrett Browning?" She asked, coming over to sit beside me.

"Yeah, I got it done." I told her. "My Dad was out last night, so it was easy. The house is always quiet when it's just me and Uncle Daryl."

"Oh," Ms. Fischer's face went pink, as it always did when I mentioned my uncle. "And how is your uncle doing? Fine, I hope."

I hid a smile. It was obvious to me that she thought he was cute and I wasn't surprised. A lot of women did. It used to bug me that we couldn't go anywhere without some woman flirting with him. Now I think it's funny to watch him squirm.

"Yeah, he's good." I answered. "So about my paper…"

We spent the next twenty minutes looking over my English paper, until I heard my best friend's voice.

"Libby!"

Hilary Compton had been my best friend since kindergarten when Bobby Cortez thought it would be funny to whip out his boy part to me in the lunch line. I, having never seen one, was speechless. Hilary, who shared a bathroom with her older brothers, just raised her brows and said "I've seen bigger." Bobby never tried to whip it out again and Hilary and I had been inseparable since.

"Hey, Hil." I said, gathering my things. "Thanks for the help, Ms. Fischer."

"Oh, you're welcome, Libby." She told me.

Hilary and I walked out of the library together. Hilary is about three inches shorter than me, slightly chubby with red hair and green eyes. Her face is sort of smushed and she kinda looks like a pug.

"So guess what?" She said as we entered the hallway.

"What?"

"Josh asked about you on the bus this morning." She told me. My heart tripped a couple of beats.

"What?"

Hilary grinned, her braces flashing. "Yeah, he was like, what's up with your friend Libby? And I was like, what do you mean? And he was like; does she have a boyfriend or what?"

"What did you say?" I asked her, my voice a few octaves higher than normal.

Josh Danvers has been the object of my affection for the past three months. I noticed how cute he was when I saw him playing his trombone during lunch one day. When I told Hilary, she said he rode her bus and then made herself my official spy.

"I told him you weren't going out with anybody." She said. "I didn't tell him that it was because your Dad and your Uncle would shot any dude who comes near you."

I sighed. This wasn't strictly true, but my both my uncle and father had joked about it more than once. Although, now that I'm older, I'm not so sure they were joking.

"Did you get your paper done for O'Neil?" Hilary asked and I nodded.

"Yeah, did you?"

She nodded too. "Yep. One thousand words on Robert Frost." She shook her head. "I'll be glad when this poetry shit is done with. It's boring."

I shrugged. "I like it." I said. She rolled her eyes.

"You would."

"Speaking of poems, I gotta ask you something." We were at our lockers now and I lowered my voice. "Do you know this poem 'I Once Knew a Boy from Nantucket'?"

She grinned and recited quickly. "I once knew a boy from Nantucket, who had a dick so long he could suck it. As he wiped off his chin, he said with a grin, if my ear was a cunt, I would fuck it."

I felt the blush creep into my cheeks. Hilary had no problem with saying stuff like that, but it still embarrassed me. "Oh." Was all I said. She grinned again.

"Why'd you wanna know about that?" She asked.

"I was telling Uncle Daryl about my paper and he said that was the only poem he knew." I shrugged. "But he wouldn't tell me what it was."

"I learned it from Corey." She told me, referring to her older brother. "But he's always saying stuff like that. Drives my mom nuts."

I giggled and we headed off to our first class.

The day sped by fairly quickly for me. It always seems too, and I think it's because I like school so much. When 3:00 came, I grabbed my stuff and walked with Hilary to her bus, and then I went and sat down on the curb under a huge old live oak in the front of the school yard. It was where I sat when it was nice out, waiting the forty-five minutes for my uncle to pick me up.

I pulled the book I was reading out of my backpack. It was called The Uglies and is about a future, dystopian society where everyone is turned "pretty" by extreme plastic surgery on their sixteenth birthday.

I had only read a few pages, when someone sat down beside me. I looked up and nearly swallowed my tongue to see Josh Danvers, carrying his huge trombone case.

"Hey." He said.

"Hi." I replied.

"What're you doing out here?" He asked.

"I'm, uh, waiting for my Uncle Daryl to pick me up." I answered. "But he doesn't get off till 3:30."

"Oh," He nodded. "I'm waiting for my ride too. I was supposed to have band practice today, but Mr. Harrison is sick, so it was cancelled and my Mom won't be here for awhile."

"Why didn't you take the bus home?" I asked. He shrugged.

"I didn't want to." He said. He pushed a strand of his dark brown hair from his face. "And I saw you sitting out here, thought I'd come and talk to you."

"Oh." I felt my face heat up slightly. "Okay."

"Um, well really, I wanted to ask you something." He said, and his face turned slightly pink too.

"What?" I asked, digging my fingernail into the dirt.

"Well, you know that the Spring Fling is coming up in May and I was wondering if you were going with anyone?"

I shook my head. The Spring Fling was a special dance for all the eighth graders, kind of like our own little prom. "No…I'm not."

"Well, do you wanna maybe go with me?" He asked. Neither of us was looking at one another.

"Yeah." I said, and my voice came out in a huff. "That sounds like fun."

"Cool." He said and I finally looked up at him. He was smiling and I realized I was too.

We sat there for a little longer, talking, until I heard the rumble of Uncle Daryl's truck. I stood up and brushed the dirt from my jeans as he pulled up to the curb in front of us.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow, huh, Libby?" Josh asked. I smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, see you tomorrow." I climbed in the truck. "Bye."

"Bye." He waved as I shut the door.

We hadn't even driven a block when my uncle turned to look at me.

"Who was that?"

"Who?" I asked, playing dumb.

"That kid who was talkin' to you."

"Oh, him?" I shrugged. "That's Josh. He's just a friend."

"Just a friend." Uncle Daryl repeated and I nodded. "You're too young to be runnin' around with boys yet."

"Well, we weren't running." I said. "We were sitting. And besides, I'm almost fourteen."

"I know how old you are." He said. "And don't be a smart ass. I'm serious."

"He…he asked me to go to the Spring Fling with him." I said.

"No." My uncle didn't even look from the road. "No way."

"What?" I turned to look at him. "Why not?"

"I said, you're too damn young to be runnin' around with boys. You could get in trouble."

I sat upright. "What do you mean, _I could get in trouble_? What exactly do you think I'm going to do?"

He spat out the window, but didn't answer. I sat back, hard, in my seat. "This is totally unfair!" I said. "All the other girls are going!"

"Well, you're not all the other girls." Uncle Daryl told me. "And I said no."

"Why don't you trust me?" I asked. "I've never done anything!"

"Its not _you_ I don't trust." He answered.

"Is this about Josh?" I asked. "You don't even know him! He's a nice guy."

"I was fourteen once." He told me.

"Yeah, like fifty years ago." I muttered. He narrowed his eyes, probably because he was only thirty-one.

"My point is, I know exactly how _nice_ they are and I don't want you gettin' into trouble." He said.

"What is this _trouble_ you keep referring to?" I asked again, but he didn't answer. I sighed in frustration and glared out the window.

We rode the rest of the way home in silence.


	2. Chapter Two

**Authors Notes: Wow, I can't believe the awesome response I got to this story! I'm glad you all like so much and it doesn't bother you that Daryl is a little OOC with Liberty. Also to answer a question: yes, I'm going to follow the show.**

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When we pulled into our driveway, my Dad's motorcycle was parked in its usual spot, which was bad, because he was supposed to be at work.

"What the hell is he doing home?" Uncle Daryl muttered. I shrugged but didn't answer. I was still mad.

I climbed out of the truck and headed into the house, not sure what I would find. Would he be in a mood, spoiling for a fight? I pushed open the screen door.

My Dad was sitting on the couch, the TV on, a beer in his hand.

"Hi, sugar." He said to me. "How was school?"

He was calling me sugar, so he wasn't in a bad mood…not yet, anyway. I looked at the beer in his hand, and then the empty cans on the coffee table, figuring he was about five drinks in and still in a good mood. Give him another three of four and he'd be looking for a fight. Hopefully, he'd be at the bar by then. Otherwise, I'd be spending the evening locked up in my bedroom, trying to avoid the crossfire.

"It was fine." I answered. "Um, Daddy, why aren't you at work?"

"Oh those bastards down at the garage laid me off." He waved his hand. "No big deal."

"What do you mean, no big deal?" Uncle Daryl came in the door behind me. "Seems like a pretty big deal to me, Merle."

"Oh, hell, those damn shitheads down there wouldn't know their asses from a hole in the ground." Daddy took another drink of his beer. "Besides, we still have your income, don't we?" He patted the seat beside him and I sat, dropping my backpack to the floor. He looked at my uncle, who had opened his mouth to argue. "Don't you be pickin' no fight with me, baby brother." He said. "I'm still the head of this damn family."

Uncle Daryl blinked hard and then turned and walked off. My father looked at me.

"So, tell your old man what you did today."

It was rare to find him in these moods where he actually wanted to know about me. Usually I was just there to him. Oh, get him good and drunk and he'd brag about my grades to his friends, how smart I was, but other than that, I felt like a puppy dog or something else that he could play with when it amused him and ignore the rest of the time.

I talked to him for a few minutes, explaining my History project on the Civil War in detail, until his eyes started to glaze over. Then I made the excuse that I needed to find do my homework and escaped to my room. Truth was, I was still pissed about Uncle Daryl telling me I couldn't o to the dance with Josh and I wanted to go stew about it.

I pulled my MP3 player out of my drawer and put my earbuds in, turning it up loud. While my Dad and Uncle were all about classic rock and old country, I preferred 90's alternative bands like Nirvana and Alice in Chains. I flipped to a Soundgarden song and closed my eyes, sulking.

After about twenty minutes, I heard my Dad's motorcycle roar to life and knew he had headed down to Kelly's Bar, his favorite hangout. I wasn't really surprised that he had gotten fired again, probably for coming in hungover, or maybe he'd gotten into a fight with his boss. I knew it didn't matter; Uncle Daryl would pull us through. He always did. My Dad claimed he was the head of our family, but really he wasn't. Uncle Daryl paid the bills and made sure I had the things I needed. Maybe I could pick up a few babysitting jobs around the trailer park and slip some money in my uncle's wallet without him knowing. I'd done that before.

I decided to go ahead and get started on my homework. It was simple stuff, a page of math problems and studying my vocab list. After supper, I'd get Uncle Daryl to quiz me…oh wait, I wasn't talking to him…damn. After I finished my homework, I pulled my book back and started to read again.

A few hours later, a knock startled me out of my stupor.

"Libby? Supper's ready."

"Kay." I figured a short, one-word answer was as good as not talking to him.

I opened my door and went into the kitchen. It smelled good…chili, my favorite. I sighed. He was doing this on purpose, because he knew I was mad.

"I made the chili out of that deer burger in the freezer." He told me and I sighed again.

"Why do you have to make it so hard for me to stay mad at you?" I asked as I sat. He sat bowl of chili in front of me. It was loaded with sour cream and shredded cheese, just the way I like it.

"Because I'm the best uncle you got." He answered. He poured me some iced tea.

I rolled my eyes. "You're the only uncle I got."

"But even if you had ten others, I'd still be the best."

"Don't be so sure." I took a bite of the chili. "Another uncle might let me go to the dance."

"Yeah, about that." Uncle Daryl sat across from me with his food. He looked a little uncomfortable and I knew one of those talks was coming on. "You gotta understand somethin', Libby. When I look at you, I still see a little girl."

"Gee, thanks." I muttered. He shook his head.

"I'm sorry, but there it is. To me, you're always gonna be the little kid in pigtails with the scraped knees, askin' me to kiss it better." He paused and took a bite. "It's hard for me to accept that you're growin' up and that you're gonna be wantin' to go out with boys and stuff."

"But it's just a dance!" I said, and he held up his hand.

"I know that. And I know you don't do anything to get in trouble. You're a good girl. But dammit, all I can see is that little skank across the street." He took another bite.

He was talkin about the girl who lived in the lot across from us, Ashley Mechume. She was only a year and half older than me and we used to play Barbie's in the dirt outside. But now she slept with every guy who would have. She already had one baby and was expecting another.

"Ashley and I haven't been anything a like for along time." I told him. "If we ever were."

"She was the same age as you when she had Kaylee." He said. "And I know you're not stupid about this stuff, but it scares me. Havin' a baby would ruin your life. You'd be stuck in this fucking trailer park for the rest of your life and I don't want that for you. You're gonna go to college and make something of yourself." He looked at me. "You're getting' out of this place. I'm makin' sure of that."

I nodded my head, my real question unanswered. "So…can I go?"

He rolled his eyes. "Try to have a touchin' moment around here, Jesus. Yes, you can go!"

"Whoo!" I jumped up and did a victory dance. "Thank you thank you thank you!"

He swatted me away. "Eat your damn food before it gets cold and stop acting like a nut."

I sat back down and continued to eat. He looked at me again.

"So, you like this boy?" He asked. "Josh or Jason or whatever the hell his name is?" I nodded.

"Josh. And yeah, I guess so."

"How do you know him?"

I shrugged. "We got a couple of classes together, and he rides Hilary's bus, so she knows him. And he's in the band with my friend Abby, so I kinda know him through her too."

Uncle Daryl snorted. "He's a band geek? This just gets better and better. My niece, going out with a band geek."

"What's wrong with band?" I asked. He snorted again.

"When I was your age, I kicked kids like that's asses on a daily basis, that's all."

I shook my head. "Has it occurred to you, if we had gone to school together, I would've also been one of your targets?"

He paused and I knew he had never thought of that. "Well, I never did pick on the pretty girls, only if I liked them."

"Except I'm not pretty." I replied.

"Yes, you are." He ruffled my hair. "You look too much like your old Uncle Daryl not to be good lookin'."

I giggled a little bit. "Yep, you're a real lady killer."

He nodded. "You're damn skippy."

After we finished eating, he helped me with the dishes.

"We need a dishwasher." I moaned as I washed and he dried, the sounds of Lynyrd Skynyd's Freebird playing on the radio behind us.

"We have one." Uncle Daryl put a pan in the cabinet behind me. "You."

I tossed some soap suds at him. "You suck, you meanie."

He flicked his rag at me. "Yeah, I'm the big meanie that's lettin' you go to that dance."

That shut me up and we finished washing the dishes together.


	3. Chapter Three

**Two Weeks Later-**

"I need a dress."

It was Friday afternoon and Uncle Daryl and I were sitting on the front porch together. My Dad was working on his motorcycle.

"What do you need a dress for?" He asked, sipping his beer. I rolled my eyes.

"The dance, duh."

"She wants to get all prettied up for her new _boyfriend_!" Dad called from where he was sitting and I felt my face go red.

"He isn't my boyfriend!" I called back. He shook his head and went back to his bike.

"I know you really want a new dress, but money is kinda tight right now." My uncle dropped his voice a little. "Since your Daddy ain't workin'."

"I have money." I said. It was true. "I have fifty dollars saved up."

Uncle Daryl scrunched his nose up. "Where the hell did you get fifty dollars?"

"Well, thirty of it is from Aunt Nancy. Remember, she sent it to me for Christmas?"

"I thought you already spent that." He said, draining his bottle and opening another one.

I shook my head. "Nope. I hid it away like you told me to, and then I forgot about it till I was cleaning out my underwear drawer yesterday and found it. And then I got twenty from babysitting for the Calandro's baby last week."

He eyed me. "I know that and I don't want to catch you tryin' to slip your hard earned money into my wallet again, you hear me?"

I nodded. Just because he'd caught me this time doesn't mean I wouldn't do it again, though.

"Anyway, where exactly do you plan on gettin' this dress?" He asked. I smiled hopefully.

"The mall's still open…."

Uncle Daryl actually laughed out loud. "Fat chance. You know I hate that fuckin' place."

"Daryl, just call Skyla." My Dad said. "I bet she'd take her."

I grinned. "Why didn't we think of that?"

"Apparently, your Dad got the brains of this family." Uncle Daryl teased, nudging me with his foot. "Hang on; I'll go call Skyla for you."

Skyla Adler has been my uncle best friend since they were little kids. She used to live in the lot next to ours with her grandma and they grew up together. I don't know the whole story, but I do know that when my Grandpa Dixon got to beating on Uncle Daryl too bad, he'd hide out at Skyla's house.

When I was little, I used to wish that Skyla and Uncle Daryl would get married, but as I got older, I realized that things just aren't like that between them. But Skyla is the closest thing to a mother that I have. She took me shopping for my first bra and when I got my period, she explained to me how to use tampons and stuff.

"She said she'll be here in ten minutes." Uncle Daryl came back out on the porch. "Then she wanted to know why didn't we ask her before now. I told her no one thought of it."

Right on time, Skyla pulled up in her little green Escort.

"What's up, bitches?" She asked, hopping up the porch steps.

"Who you callin' a bitch, bitch?" Uncle Daryl poked his foot out and nudged her with the tip of his boot.

"You wanna go with us, Dar?" She asked. "I'll make it worth your while…"

"Its no use tempting him with promises of the food court." I said. "I already tried."

It's my one ambition to look like Skyla when I'm grown up. She's tall, almost as tall as my uncle, with long blonde hair and grey eyes. She looks like a freakin' model, but she talks like a truck driver. Dad says it's because she grew up in the trailer park, but I said I grew up in the trailer park and I don't talk like that. He said I was "a bird of another feather" whatever that means.

"Fine." Skyla sighed. "Too pussy to face the mall, I get it."

"I think this is more of a girl's trip." He said. "I don't see myself followin' you two from store to store while you look for a dress. Ain't gonna happen."

"All right, but we ain't bring you chuckleheads anything back." Skyla said. "Ready, L.B?" She always called me L.B. In fact, it was her idea to name me Liberty Belle, because I was born on the Fourth of July.

"Yep." I slung my little denim purse over my shoulder. "I'm ready."

"Skyla, don't be drivin' like a mad woman with her in the car!" Uncle Daryl called down the steps after us.

She rolled her eyes at me, but smiled at him. "I won't, you worry wart."

"Jesus," She said once we were in her car. "I'm surprised he's even lettin' you out of the house."

"Tell me about it." I sighed. "He wasn't even gonna let me go to the dance!"

Skyla shook her head as we turned out onto the highway. "I bet you didn't know that your Uncle Daryl took me to our junior prom."

I goggled at her. "What?"

She grinned. "Oh yes, he sure did. I wore a dress, he stole a suit from somewhere and we went to the prom in this old Monte Carlo he used to drive. We had a good time. Of course, I had to talk him out of spiking the punch and we left before the prom queen and king were even announced, but we had a good time anyway." She smiled at the memories and I shook my head.

"Did you guys, like…do it?" I asked. She looked at me and then laughed.

"Oh Lord." She said. "Yes, we did."

I felt my mouth fall open and Skyla laughed again. "Close your mouth, kiddo. You look like a fish. And quit looking at me like that. It didn't mean anything. Neither of us had ever done it before and we decided that doing it with each other was as good as anyone else. So we did." She slanted a look my way. "It didn't take very long and we never talked about it again. We just got drunk on orange vodka and barely made it home."

A Dixie Chicks song came on the radio and she reached over and turned it up. It was hard for me to imagine my uncle as a teenager. I mean, he was only eighteen when I was born, but I don't remember that obviously, and of course, I've seen pictures of him when he was young, but it was still hard to imagine.

"What was he like?" I asked. "When you guys were kids, I mean."

Skyla smiled and lit a cigarette. "A lot like he is now. Quiet. He liked to hunt and fish. When we were really little, we used to play army under the trailers. This was before your grandma passed, you know. She used to tie this old bandana around his head."

"The one with the Confederate flag on it?" I asked and she nodded. "He has it hanging in his bedroom."

"I know." Skyla flipped her smoke out the window. "This conversation is making me sad. Tell me about this boy. Daryl says he's in the band."

I rolled my eyes. "That's all he can concentrate on. I don't know why it's such a big deal."

"Its not." Skyla said. "Ignore him. This is just hard for him. Your Dad, too, but he hides it better. You're not a little girl anymore and it kills them."

I sighed. "I don't understand it. I mean, every kid grows up, what were they expecting, that I was gonna stay a kid forever?"

"No." She said. "But I think they were hoping you would stay one for awhile longer."

We pulled into the mall parking lot. On a Friday evening, it was pretty busy, and after a few minutes of circling, we found a parking spot.

"We're like, two miles from the front door." I said. Skyla rolled her eyes.

"The walk won't kill you." She said.

We poked around a couple of stores, but we hit paydirt at Deb's. They had racks and racks of formal dresses for cheap.

"Ohh…look at this one!" I held up a black and hot pink dress, short and halter style. Skyla shook her head.

"Daryl and Merle wouldn't let you out of the house in that." She said. "What about this one?"

She held up a long, black dress. I made a puking noise. "Yeah, if you want me to look like a freakin' nun."

"What? It's cute." She sighed and out it back, flipping through the dresses again. "Nothing white, it'll wash you out. Blue's good, or green. It'll bring out your eyes."

This is exactly why I was glad to have Skyla. My dad or uncle wouldn't know that white would wash me out, or that blue and green would bring out my eyes.

Finally, after a while of searching, I found a nice one that I liked. It was a very dark blue, midnight blue Skyla called it. It was long and silky, and it tied around the back of my neck.

"Does it look all right?" I asked, as I stepped out of the dressing room. Skyla grinned.

"Yeah, its looks really good. You look really grown up."

I looked down at myself, my flat chest and narrow hips and thought she must be joking. I didn't look grown up at all.

"Now, we need shoes."

The shoes didn't take as long as the dress and I found a pair of silver, sparkly ones with a low heel. Skyla had me try on a pair of stilettos, but I nearly broke my neck trying to walk.

Skyla and I ate at the Checkers in the food court and then headed home.

"Did you find a dress?" Uncle Daryl was still sitting on the porch and still drinking beer when we got home. I could tell by the soft slur in his voice that he was drunk. He was a quiet drunk, not loud like my Dad.

"Yep." I held it up. "You want to see me in it."

"Sure." He held out his hand and Skyla pulled him up, rolling her eyes.

"Jesus," She said. "You fuckin' lush."

"Shut up." He mumbled. "Libby, go put that dress on."

My Dad was sitting in front of the TV, watching the news. Waiting for the weather, probably.

"Gonna go try my new dress on." I told him.

I put in on quickly and tied it around my neck, and then I slipped my feet into my new shoes. I was expecting a little bit of something when I walked back out into the front room in my finest, but they were all three glued to the TV.

"Um, hello?" I said. "What's the matter?"

"Some weird shit on the news." Skyla said.

"Weird, how?" I asked.

"Weird like a bunch of freaks eating each other." Uncle Daryl shook his head. "Probably some damn cult shit or something."

"I bet it's a bunch of meth heads." My Dad said. "It happened before, remember?" He looked at me. "Look at you."

"Stand up and give 'em a twirl." Skyla told me and I did. My uncle smiled.

"Looks nice, Libby." He told me. "Looks real nice."

I smiled and went to change out of my dress, but I was distracted by what they had said. People eating one another? That was really weird.


	4. Chapter Four

**Two chapters in one day? Look at me!**

* * *

My father was high off his ass.

He didn't get like this as often as he used to, a stint in the county jail had back him off the drugs for awhile, but he was slowly picking them up again.

It was a Saturday night, and half the men in the trailer park were in our front yard, drinking and doing God knows what else. Uncle Daryl was out there too, with his friends, getting drunk. And me? I was sitting on my bed, with my light turned out, and my little LED booklamp clipped to the back cover of the novel I was reading. I was supposed to in bed, but Jesus, who could sleep with all that noise?

When my door knob started to turn, I thought it was Uncle Daryl or my Dad, that one of them had spotted the light and came to tell me to shut it off and get to sleep. It was long after midnight, after all.

But when the door opened, I could tell it wasn't either of them, that it was someone else, but the hall light behind him was making it hard to make out his figure.

"I know you're awake, girl." He whispered and I knew the voice immediately.

It was Donny Freed, one of my Dad's running buddies. I had known Donny since I was kid, but I never really liked him much. He made me uncomfortable and now he was in my bedroom. I could smell the scent of whiskey wafting off of him in waves.

"Don't you make no noise, either."

When I was a little girl, I had the loudest scream on the playground. My Dad says you could hear me screaming for a clear quarter mile. I guess I still can, because I opened my mouth and let loose with scream that I swear rattled the windows. It worked too, because I could hear my uncle outside my open screen.

"Shit, Liberty!"

I heard him barrel through the door and he ran into Donny in the hallway.

"What the hell is going on in here?" He asked.

"I wondered into her room thinking it was the bathroom and I must've scared her." Donny said.

"He's lying!" I shouted to my uncle. "He came in here and he told me not to make no noise!"

I heard a dull thud and I realized that Uncle Daryl had just popped Donny in the face. I jumped out my bed and hurried into the hallway in time to see him dragging the man out the front door.

"What the hell is this?" I could hear my Dad's voice, slurred.

"This sumbitch was in Libby's room." Uncle Daryl told him. I pushed my way through the crowd of people on our front porch.

"I said, I thought I was in the bathroom." Donny looked at my Dad. His face was bloody from where Uncle Daryl had punched him. "It was an accident, Merle. You know I wouldn't do nothin' to that girl."

"He's lying, Daddy!" I said and every face turned to look at me. I felt self conscious in Super Mario Bros. nightgown. "He came in my room and he said he knew I was awake and not to make any noise!"

My father stood from his lawn chair and swayed slightly. "That true, Donny?" He asked. "You think you're gonna get a piece of ass out my little girl?"

"No…Merle…you ain't understandin' what I'm sayin'…" Donny started to back up, but he didn't get far before my uncle had stepped behind him. He bumped right into Uncle Daryl.

"I saw you comin' out there, you piece of shit." He said.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and I turned to see Skyla standing behind me. "Let's go back in the house." She said. "You don't need to see this."

"What're they gonna do to him, Sky?" I asked her. She wrapped a blanket around my shoulders and I realized I was shivering.

"Probably gonna drag his sorry ass in the woods and beat the shit out of him." She said. We sat on the couch together and she flipped the TV on.

"Are they gonna kill him?" I asked. I knew serious shit went down in our trailer park sometimes and that sometimes my uncle or dad, or both, were involved in it, but I never had been. Skyla smiled.

"No, they ain't gonna kill him, baby." She told me. "Just mess him up real good."

"What if the cops come?" I asked. The Deerwood County police always seemed to make their way out to Wildflower Ridge at least once a weekend. "I don't want Daddy or Uncle Daryl to get in trouble."

"Nobody ain't gonna call the cops." She said. "Come on now, let's watch some TV."

She settled on the news, again, and we watched as a few local stories took place. And then, the world wide stuff. I was suddenly tired and the words were drifting in and out.

"…_Reports of city wide riots in New York and Philadelphia..."_

"…_Mass infections as far away as Sydney and Tokyo…."_

"…_some kind of virus…"_

I'm not sure how long I slept on the couch with Skyla beside me, but I heard, as if in a dream, my uncle coming in.

"Jesus, Dar." Skyla was saying. "Come on, I'll help you get cleaned up."

I listened, still half asleep as he told her what happened, how they had drug Donny into the woods and beat him. It scared me to think that my gentle uncle could be so violent, but I knew he could be. I had seen it with my own eyes.

I heard him hiss out a breath as Skyla poured iodine on his scraped up knuckles. "Fuck, Sky, that hurts!"

"Don't be a pussy." She told him. "Where's your brother?"

"Merle's probably passed out somewhere by now." He said. "But I had to come home and check on Libby. She okay?"

"She's no worse for the wear." Skyla told him. "I can't believe that sick bastard. I mean, I know he sleep with anything that moves, but L.B's just a kid."

"I know." I heard him hiss again. "And he paid for it."

"Daryl…" Skyla trailed off. She tried again. "Daryl, when are you gonna tell her the truth? She deserves to know."

This puzzled me. Was I awake or was this a strange dream?

"Shit, Skyla, we been over this a million times." I heard him answer. "I ain't tellin' her nothin' about nothin', okay? Let it go."

I heard him coming closer to me and I slitted my eyes open. He had kneeled down beside the couch. "Hey, baby girl, how you feeling'?"

"M'okay." I said. "Sleepy."

"You want me to carry you?" He asked. I nodded and I felt him scoop me up in his arms. "I'll take you to your bed."

"No…I wanna sleep in your bed." I told him and I felt him sigh.

"Libby, you're gettin' too big to be sleepin' in my bed." He told me, but I wrapped my arms around his neck and clung to him. He sighed again. "Fine…"

I smiled into his shirt because I had gotten my way. I knew I was acting like a baby, but tonight I was getting away with it. "I want Skyla too."

"What?" I heard Skyla screech from behind us as Uncle Daryl opened his bedroom door.

"Shit, Sky, ain't like we never shared a bed before." He said to her.

"Yeah…twenty years ago." She shot back.

"And after the junior prom." I added.

"We didn't share a bed then, just the backseat of my car…" Uncle Daryl trailed off. "How the hell do you know about that?" He looked up at Skyla. "How the hell does she know about that?"

"Oops." Skyla laid down beside me on one side and my uncle on the other. I began to drift back off to the sounds of their whispers.

"I saw more crazy shit on the news." Skyla whispered. "More about this infection or whatever the fuck it is. A virus."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, it's spreading to the US now." She sounded worried and I guess Uncle Daryl could hear it to.

"We ain't got nothin' to worry about." He told her.

"Its already in Philly and NYC." She said. "What if it makes its way to Atlanta? That's only 100 miles from here."

"We'll be fine." Uncle Daryl told her. "You know I ain't gonna let nothin' happen to my best girls."


	5. Chapter Five

"Neil Patrick Harris makes my ovaries quiver." Skyla sighed as we watched a rerun of How I Met Your Mother on the TV.

"I don't think you're his type." Uncle Daryl snickered. He was sitting with us in the living room, on the loveseat, with Skyla curled up next to him. He wasn't watching the television though, he was carving something out of wood. It was an old hobby of his, something he said he liked to do when his hands got nervous.

"Fuck you." Skyla shot back.

She laid her head against his thigh. Something had shifted between them after the night a week ago that they had lain on either side of me in Uncle Daryl's bed, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I eyed the carving in his hands.

"What are you gonna make this time?" I asked. I had an assortment of his wooden carvings on a shelf in my room, mostly penguins, since they were my favorite animal, but also a horse, a cat, and a little pig.

"I think maybe a dog of some kind." He said. "But I haven't decided yet."

"Will you make me a cocker spaniel?" I asked. He nodded.

"Sure. Sky, remember that old spaniel we used to play with? Scooter?"

"Yeah," Skyla smiled. "He was such a sweet old thing. I cried for days when he died."

"What happened to him?" I asked.

A sour look came onto my uncle's face. "The old man shot him." He said. "Said he was sick of him being in the way."

Daddy and Uncle Daryl always Grandpa Dixon "_the old man_". I don't remember him at all. He died when I was just a baby. I'm glad I have no memories with him in them. He wasn't a good person, that much I knew. I'd seen the scars on my uncle and my father's backs so many times; I knew them like an old roadmap. I knew he used to lock Uncle Daryl in the hall closet. Not the closet in this trailer, the one in the old trailer that burned down when my Grandma Dixon fell asleep with a cigarette in her hand.

"What the fuck is this?" Skyla asked, pulling me from my thoughts. "They're interrupting Robin Sparkles, and I swear to God, if we miss Let's Go to the Mall, heads are gonna roll-."

She stopped as words began to flash across the screen.

_An Urgent Alert from the Emergency Broadcast System_

Uncle Daryl sat up, sitting his carving aside as a newswoman came on the screen.

"We interrupt your usual viewing to bring you live, breaking news out of Atlanta." She said, her hair blonde and perfectly coifed. The screen cut to the streets of the city, where people were running amok.

"Merle!" Uncle Daryl called out. "Merle, get your ass out here, you need to see this!"

"What?" My dad came from his bedroom, his hair matted and his eyes bleary. His eyes went from Skyla to Uncle Daryl and his lips curled into a smart alecky smile. "What's goin' on?"

"There's more news about this virus on the news." Skyla said. I scooted down the couch to make room for him.

"It's in Atlanta now." I whispered. "What if it comes _here_?"

"Now, I told you that you ain't got nothin' to worry about." Uncle Daryl told me. "Me and your Daddy, we ain't gonna let nothin' happen to you." He looked at my Dad. "Ain't that right, Merle?"

My Dad put his arm around me, a rare gesture. We weren't normally overly affectionate people. "That's right, sugar." He said. But I saw the look he and Uncle Daryl passed over my head. They were worried too.

"Come on, L.B." Skyla reached out and took my hand. "Let's take a walk."

Uncle Daryl looked up sharply. "Outside?" He asked.

"No, up and down the hallway." Skyla said sarcastically. "Of _course_, outside."

"I'll come with you." Uncle Daryl stood up. He and Daddy passed another look between them, some kind of secret sibling code that I'd missed out on.

"Fine." Skyla said.

"I'm goin' back to bed." Daddy said. "If the virus hits Deerwood while I'm sleepin' don't wake me up." He tugged my ponytail and I frowned.

"Not funny." I said.

We walked through the trailer park. It seemed like everyone was worried about this infection thing, we stopped a few times to talk to neighbors about it. I saw Donny Freed sitting on his porch; his face still all messed up. He got up and went inside when we walked past, but I think that was because Uncle Daryl sent him a deadly look.

When we made it to the end of the road, instead of following it around the court, Uncle Daryl veered off into the woods. Skyla and I followed him. No one knew the woods like my uncle. I fell a few steps behind them as I stopped to look up at a bluebird in a tree. When I caught up to them, I noticed they were walking so close the backs of their hands were touching, just barely, and I watched quietly as my uncle reached down and wrapped his fingers around Skyla's. It was a common thing, I seen it before, but something seemed different about it now. Before, when they'd held hands it was when they had been drinking or were goofing off. Now…well, it just seemed like something else.

"Are you guys having sex?" I asked loudly, just to get a reaction.

Uncle Daryl turned to look at me. "Excuse me?" He asked. I almost laughed.

"Are you?"

"Why would you ask that?" Skyla asked.

"Well, you're holding hands." I said.

"Friends can hold hands." She replied. I shook my head.

"I don't hold hands with my friends and besides, _you're_ the only friend _he_ holds hands with." I told her.

"Well, the rest of my friends are guys." Uncle Daryl pointed out. "You want me to hold their hands? That'd be too weird, even for me."

"Honey, we told you a long time ago that things weren't like that between us." Skyla said.

"But you did it once!"

Uncle Daryl shot Skyla a Look. "You should've never told her that." He said. "That was a long time ago." He told me.

"Well, I just thought that with all this scary stuff going on, you two finally realized that you're desperately in love." I said and my uncle snorted.

"I think you been readin' too much of that Twilight shit." He told me.

"One:" I held my index finger to emphasize my point. "I hate Twilight and two: how the hell do you even know what Twilight is?"

"One:" He held his own finger up, mocking me. "Watch your damn mouth, and two: everyone in the English speaking world knows what Twilight is."

"Argghh!" I threw my hands up in the air and marched ahead of them.

"So Dar," I heard Skyla ask from behind me. "Team Edward or Team Jacob?"

"Fuck you." Uncle Daryl replied and she laughed. When I looked back, they were still holding hands.

* * *

That night, as I lay in my bed, I saw them in the dim moonlight outside my window. The May nights were nice enough that I had my window cracked open. Maybe they didn't realize where they stood or maybe just not that I was awake and could hear them.

"That girl is plumb full of it lately." I could hear Uncle Daryl.

"It's just her age." Skyla told him. "It'll pass…in about five years or so."

"Yay." He replied in a soft, sarcastic tone.

"It kinda got me thinking though…why did we never make a go of it, after what happened between us?"

"Dunno."

"If we had, do you think we might've made it together?" She asked.

"Dunno." He said again. "Maybe…maybe not."

I rolled over on my stomach, my gaze glued to their figures in the yard. I felt like I was watching my own personal soap opera play out. Redneck 90210 or something.

"Just think," Skyla told him. "If we had, we could be married by now, with babies of our own."

This got a chuckle from my uncle. "Or we could've dated for two months, broken up and never spoke again."

Sky laughed too. "Or that." I watched her reach out and touch his face. "But I like to think we would've made it." She said. "If we'd tried." She yawned hugely. "Shit, it's late. Guess I better get my ass home."

"You could stay the night here." He said.

"Why Daryl Dixon, are you asking me to bed?" She asked.

"What? No! I just meant…" He trailed off, sounding embarrassed and Skyla laughed.

"Chill sweetie, I'm only teasing you. I know our chance passed us by a long time ago." She touched his face again. "But sometimes I like to think about what might've been."

She stood then and I heard the gravel crunch as she walked to her car. Uncle Daryl sat outside for a long time after she left.


	6. Chapter Six

**I can't believe how quickly I'm getting this story out! I just love this fandom and I can't wait to get ot the exciting parts, which will be starting after this chapter! And I'm considering doing a little side story, a series of drabbles about Daryl and Skyla as they grew up...including the infamous prom date. What do you all think? Would you like to read it? Let me know in your reviews, okay?**

* * *

The day before my life changed completely was the day of the dance. It started at five and after I got home from school, Skyla came over to help me get ready. She burst through the screen door with several bag of…stuff.

"What the fuck is that?" My Dad was sitting at the table, eating a sandwich.

"Beauty supplies." She answered. She looked at me. "You. Shower. Now. Oh, shit." She dropped and bag and bent over to pick it up.

I watched as my dad and my uncle's eyes both zeroed in on her butt. It seemed to me that it didn't matter to them that she had grown up with them like a sister. If a woman in short shorts bends over, all the men in the room are going to look.

"Lookin' good in them Daisy Dukes, Sky." Daddy told her. Skyla grinned.

"Screw you, Merle." She said. She looked over her shoulder at Uncle Daryl, whose face reddened as he looked away. Her grin grew wider.

I shook my head and started to go back to shower.

"Don't forget to shave you legs!" Skyla called after me.

"Jeez, can't you be discreet?" I asked her.

"What, you think they don't know you shave your legs?" She replied. "Maybe they don't know you have your period, either."

"We pretend that we don't know." Daddy told her. "And we ignore the mood swings."

"I _do not_ have mood swings!" I protested and Uncle Daryl hacked a cough that I think was supposed to cover a laugh. "I'm taking a shower." I said, flouncing down the hallway.

When I came out of the shower, Skyla rushed me into my bedroom. She shut the door and flipped my radio on.

"First things first," She said, pulling something out of her bag and handing it to me. "As promised."

It was a picture, the prom photo of her and Uncle Daryl she'd promised to bring me. It said_ Prom: 1995_ in silvery letters in the corner. Skyla wore a long, dark pink dress, with her blonde hair piled high on her head and my Uncle Daryl, dressed fancier than I'd ever seen him, wore his stolen suit. He looked a lot the same, his face was smoother and he didn't have any facial hair, but otherwise he looked like he did now.

I stared at the picture while Skyla started on my hair. She yanked and pulled my long locks up into her huge curlers and then set to blow drying them.

"Let's go get something to eat while they finish drying." She said.

Daddy and Uncle Daryl were on the porch, talking to Mr. Mechume. He was telling them how some crazy person had bitten Ashley yesterday, when she got off work at the truck stop she worked at part time.

"He bit her?" Uncle Daryl asked and Mr. Mechume nodded.

"Yeah, some sick fuck." He said.

Skyla and I were eating macaroni and cheese when they back inside.

Uncle Daryl got himself a bowl of it too. "Did you hear what Frank was saying?" He asked us. "About Ashley?"

"Yeah," Skyla said around a mouthful. "Weirdos, huh?"

"You bet." He looked at me, my head huge with curlers. "That how you're goin' to the dance?"

I stuck out my tongue. "I'm gonna be gorgeous, you just watch."

"I don't doubt it." He tucked into his bowl of mac and cheese.

"So look what Skyla brought me." I held the prom photo out and Uncle Daryl took it.

"Oh Lord." He said. "Look at us. Couple of dorks, huh?"

Skyla grinned. She had flipped the radio in the kitchen on, because she always needed music. An old Hank Williams Jr song was playing and she danced around the table.

"Yep, we were."

"Where'd you get that suit, Uncle Daryl?" I asked. "Did you really steal it?"

He smiled. "Nah. Your Mama got it for me, actually. It belonged to her Daddy, before he passed."

Skyla stopped dancing, her eyes hardening slightly at the mention of my mother. I got the impression she never really cared for my Mom, though I didn't know why. "Why'd you tell me you stole it?"

Uncle Daryl shrugged. "I was trying to impress you." He said. Skyla snorted.

"Mee-Maw used to put us in the bathtub together." She said. "Why did you feel the need to impress me?"

He shrugged again. "First date and all. You know."

Skyla shook her head and looked at me. "You about done eating?" She asked. "We're running out of time."

"Yeah." I finished my bowl and got up. "Let me go brush my teeth."

When I got back to my bedroom, Skyla was waiting to do my makeup. I could tell right away something was wrong.

"Sit." She said, digging through her makeup bag.

"You okay?" I asked, looking at the wrinkle in her forehead.

"I'm fine." She said, pulling out a compact.

"You look mad."

"I'm not mad." She said. "Now stop talking."

I did as she said and shut my mouth while she worked. It didn't take her very long and when I looked back in the mirror, I was amazed. My eyes were suddenly huge.

"How did you do that?" I asked.

"The trick to good makeup is that you either play up the eyes, like I did with you, or the mouth, but never both. That's too much." She said.

"Skyla, why don't you like my Mom?" I asked. She stopped and looked at me.

"That was random." She said. "But if you wanna know, I'll tell you. She was stuck up and she had no reason to be. She was pretty, really pretty, and she knew it. She ran around on your Daddy all the time. Granted, he wasn't perfect either, but still. And I don't like any woman who'll go off and leave her child."

"Because your Mom left you?" I asked and she nodded. I knew the story. Skyla's Mom had dropped her off for a weekend visit at her Mee-Maw's when she was about a year old she never came back.

"Where do you think my Mom is?" I asked. Skyla shrugged.

"Hard to say. She used to go on about how she wanted to a soap opera actress, but we never saw her on any, so I guess she didn't make it. Baby always talked big though." Baby was mom's real name, I swear. It's even on my birth certificate. Father: Merle A Dixon; Mother: Baby L Reid.

I sat as still as I could while Skyla did my hair. Uncle Daryl came in for awhile and sat on my bed, watching her silently. It was weird having him in there. He used to come into my room all the time, when I was little, and we would play. We would take all the blankets off my bed and off his bed and build massive tents and pretend we were camping or exploring caves or whatever. But after I started getting too old to play silly games and started caring more about my clothes and boys, he stopped coming in. I think it made him uncomfortable. He left when it was time for me to put my dress on.

When I came out into the living room, in my formal gown and heels, with my face made up and my done up in curls, my Daddy looked up and smiled.

"Look at you." His eyes went soft and he looked at me in a way that he hadn't looked at me in a long time, if ever. "You look all grown up."

"She is." Uncle Daryl was leaning against the doorjamb of the kitchen, smoking. "Looks like Mama, don't she?"

"Yeah," Daddy said. "Yeah, she sure does look like Mama. Jesus Christ, I never noticed it before."

I'd only seen a handful of pictures of Grandma Dixon, but I knew Uncle Daryl favored her, which meant I favored him.

"Ready to go?" He asked me, snubbing out his smoke.

"Yeah." I kissed my Dad on the top of his head, knowing he wouldn't be home when I got home. He'd be out drinking or doing drugs or with one of his girlfriends.

"Have a good time." He said.

"I will."

Uncle Daryl and Skyla drove me to the school. Josh was waiting for me by the live oak, the same one where he'd asked to the dance. He was wearing a suit.

"Hello, Mr. Dixon." He said to my uncle, whose lip curled at being referred to as _Mister_.

"Hey," He said back and then looked at me. "Have fun. Sky and I'll be back for you at 8:00, okay?"

I nodded. "Okay."

Skyla squeezed my hand as I climbed out of the old truck. "Have a good time, sweetie." She said.

Josh and I walked into the gym together. It was decorated real nice. There was a photographer who walked around taking pictures none of us would ever get to see, even though we didn't know it then. I danced with Josh and I danced with Hilary.

Three hours later, when my uncle picked me up, I didn't realize that I'd never see Hilary or Josh or any of my friends ever again.


	7. Chapter Seven

**Authors Note's: This chapter is fairly short and kind harried. I did that on purpose, because i thought that's how it might seem in Liberty's memories later on. The next one will probably be the same way, but then after that they'll get longer again.**

* * *

I woke up to a scream.

That was it, just a single scream, but with it, my entire life changed forever.

I climbed out of my bed and hurried into the living room, but it was empty. I stepped out on the porch in time to see Ashley from across the street, Ashley, who I had played with so many times as a kid, pick up her daughter and bite into her neck. Little Kaylee began to scream again as her mother started to devour her and I…I just stood there.

This wasn't real…it_ couldn't_ be. I was dreaming. That was it, I was dreaming. Any second, Uncle Daryl would knock on my door and tell me to get my lazy ass out of bed and I could tell him about it and he'd laugh and tell me to stop eating Spicy Nacho Doritos before bed.

So I stood there calmly, waiting to wake up, as Ashley threw her baby aside like she was a rag doll. Only…only the baby wasn't dead…now she was up and walking too and they were both headed for me. They moved slowly and awkwardly and I was reminded of an old movie that Hilary and I had once watched on late night TV, The Night of the Living Dead.

I heard a noise and I turned towards it. It was Skyla, screeching down our road in her crappy Escort. She jumped out of her car and I realized she was holding a baseball bat. I don't know where she got, she couldn't play a sport to save her life, but I watched in silent horror as she swung the bat right into baby Kaylee's head, or whatever had been baby Kaylee. She knocked her down and hit her again, then turned her attention to Ashley, doing the same thing.

"Get your ass in the house." She said to me, coming up the steps. The bat was covered with blood and something gray and sticky looking that I didn't want to think about. She grabbed my arm and led me inside.

Uncle Daryl was awake now, meandering in the kitchen in his underwear, looking for something to eat. He looked up at us as we came in the door.

"Hey, Sky, nice bat-." It was then that he got a good look at it. "What the hell is all over it?"

"You need to get dressed and get your brother up." Skyla told him. "Now."

"But what's going on-?"

_"Now, Daryl_!"

"Skyla, I'm scared." I said, looking at her. "I don't think I'm having a bad dream."

"You're not, L.B." She told me. "This shit is real." She shook her head. "I think it's this infection everyone's been going on about. Its here."

"Now will you tell us what the fuck is going on?" Uncle Daryl came back into the kitchen, fully dressed, dragging my Dad behind him.

And so Skyla told us the story of how she woke up and went outside to get the paper. How she watched a man, who looked like something out of a damn horror movie attack another man right in front of her and begin to eat him alive and then started for her. How she had scooped up the old baseball bat left lying in her front yard by a neighbor kid and began to hit the man. How nothing she did seemed to matter, how he kept coming at her until she hit him directly in the head and split his skull open.

"It's this virus." She said. "It has to be. On my way over here, I saw tons of these…things. These dead looking things. They're saying that there are refugee shelters in Atlanta…"

I sat down, hard, in a kitchen chair, the room suddenly spinning around me.

"What're we gonna do?" I asked.

"Well, we can't go nowhere with your Dad like that." Uncle Daryl said and I turned to look at my father, realizing for the first time that he was still coasting high on whatever drug he had gotten hopped up on the night before. "Sky, why don't you and Libby go on ahead to Atlanta and we'll catch up to you in a few hours-."

"No!" Skyla and I said at the same time.

"I won't leave you." Skyla told him and I nodded.

"Me either!"

"We have to stick together." Skyla reached out and touched his arm and he flinched a little. "We'll just lock the doors and wait it out. Surely it won't take long for him to come down."

That day is still blurry to me. I remember shutting and locking all the windows. I remember how hot it got inside the trailer. I remember Uncle Daryl telling me to pack a small bag of stuff to take to Atlanta with me. But most of all, I remember those things outside, tons of them, like Skyla said.

In my small dufflebag, I tossed several pairs of panties and two extra bars, some pajamas and three extra outfits. I debated about it, but I grabbed the old rag doll that had belonged to Grandma Dixon, my MP3 player, and some books. The last thing I tossed in was the prom picture of Uncle Daryl and Skyla. I brought my stuff out into the living room. Daddy was starting to come down and we would be leaving soon.

"I think we oughta take my pickup." Uncle Daryl was saying. "It has more room than the Escort."

"But the Escort gets better gas." Skyla argued.

"I ain't leavin' my bike for one of these freaks to get a hold of." Daddy said.

Skyla threw her hands up in the air. "Fine, Merle can ride his bike and me and Daryl, and L.B can ride in the truck. Jesus, you big babies, it's only a national damn crisis out there, but don't leave your toys behind."

We were preparing to make a run for it when it happened. I stepped out the door, right behind my uncle when one of them grabbed me. I looked into the distorted face of Mrs. Allbright, an elderly woman I had known since I was a baby. She used to babysit me sometimes, I remembered, but now she was lowering her mouth to my arm, snarling, preparing to bite me.

I felt a hard knock to my left and I fell down. Looking up, I realized it was Skyla. She had knocked me out Mrs. Allbright's grasp. But now…now Mrs. Allbright had her grip on Sky and I watched, horrified as she sunk her teeth into Skyla's arm.

I could hear my uncle screaming. "Skyla! Skyla!" He came running back, firing his old Smith and Wesson, but it was too late. Skyla was gone.

I was frozen, unable to move, and I began to scream when I felt something lift me up.

"Hush girl, it's just me!" It was Daddy; he carried me to the truck and practically threw me in the seat.

"Daryl, come on!" He shouted. I watched as Uncle Daryl scooped up Skyla's dufflebag and tossed it in the back of the truck. He climbed in beside me.

"You all right?" He asked and I looked at him, the tears on his face. It was the final impossibility. My uncle was crying.

"I'm fine." I said. "You?"

He nodded and we pulled out onto the highway, my Dad behind us on his motorcycle. I felt numb.

What would happen to us now?

* * *

**Authors Note's: And there you have it, the arrival of the ZOMBIES! A lot of people are gonna be pissed because I killed Skyla off, but I had to. I'm sorry, I really liked her too, but don't worry, there will be plenty of her in the side story, which I have decided to write! I'll let you all know when its up!**


	8. Chapter Eight

"I'm scared, Uncky." I said.

He looked at me. "Me too, baby."

I looked out the window at the scenery flying by us. "It's my fault that Skyla's dead." I told him.

I could feel his eyes on me, but I didn't look over at him. "Liberty, why would you say that?"

"Because, Mrs. Allbright, what _used_ to be Mrs. Allbright, she grabbed me first and Skyla…Skyla pushed me out of the way. She had to have known that she…_it_…would get her instead."

This time I did look at him and I could see the tears glistening on his face again. In my nearly fourteen years I had never seen my uncle cry, not once.

"Were…were you in love with her?" I asked. He wiped his eyes quickly.

"Yeah." He admitted. 'Yeah, I was, but she didn't know and I didn't feel the need to tell to her. I thought that maybe one day…" He trailed off.

"I heard you outside my window the other night." I told him. "She loved you too. I know she did."

"I should've told her." He said. "Years ago, I should've told her." He wiped at his eyes again.

I slid across the seat and took his hand. "I love you." I told him.

He smiled his sad smile down at me then. "I love you too, kid."

We rode to the interstate in silence.

When we got there, I was amazed at first at how busy it was and then I realized…the cars were empty.

"Oh my God…" I whispered, looking out at the miles and miles of vehicles.

My Dad roared up beside us on his bike and Uncle Daryl rolled down his window. "This place is a goddamned mess." Daddy said.

"Tell me about it." My uncle answered. "What do you think we oughta do?"

My Dad sighed and scratched his head. "I'm gonna ride ahead, see if I can't find out what's what. Y'all wait here."

"Don't worry." Uncle Daryl shut the truck off. "We ain't going anywhere."

"I'm thirsty." I said, as I watched my father ride away on his bike.

"Here," Uncle Daryl reached behind the seat and pulled a cold soda from his old cooler.

I drank the Pepsi quickly and gave myself the hiccups, just like I always do, and it made my uncle smile a little.

"You wanna get out, stretch your legs some?" He asked and I nodded, looking around at the quickly falling darkness.

"Only if you come with me." I said and he rolled his eyes.

"What, you think I'm gonna just let you wonder off on your own?"

I shrugged. "Stranger things have happened today."

Honestly, I felt like I was five-years-old again. He made me hold his hand.

"Can't I just walk beside you?" I asked in indignation as he put our bags in the cab of the truck and locked it up tight.

"Someone…or something…could grab you in a second." He said. "Hold my damn hand."

I took his hand. "We look like idiots." I said.

He looked at me. "Is this a face that looks like it cares what anyone thinks of me? And besides," he looked around. "Ain't no one here to see you holdin' your old Uncky's hand anyway."

I sighed and we began to walk.

The night air was balmy and my hand was sweaty in his. We had walked about a mile and a half when we saw the explosions. They lit up the Atlanta skyline like fireworks.

"What's that?" I asked, grasping my uncle's hand tighter.

"Looks like they're dropping bombs in the middle of the fucking city." He said. I clutched him and we watched together as they continued to explode.

Darkness had fully fallen by then.

"I'm scared." I said again. I was quickly losing count of how many times I'd said it that day. "Uncky, I wanna go home."

"Ain't no goin' home, baby girl." He told me. "We ain't got no home anymore."

I felt tears begin to well up in my eyes. "Let's go back to the truck." I said. "I'm sleepy."

"All right." He said and we began to head back. I half expected my Dad to be waiting for us when we got there, but he wasn't.

Uncle Daryl used some of the blankets were had brought and made us a little nest like bed in the front seat of the truck. He laid down first and I curled up with him.

"Tell me a story." I said.

"Thought you was sleepy."

"I am…but I wanna hear one of your old Native American stories." I turned around and looked at him. "Please?"

He sighed. "All right." He said. "Which on you wanna hear?"

"Tell me the one about the Heron and the Hummingbird." I said. I chose that one because it had also been Skyla's favorite and we both knew it.

I closed my eyes and listened to his voice as he began to talk.

"_The Heron and the Hummingbird were once very good friends,"_ He started. "_Even though one was tall and gangly and the other was sleek and small. They liked to fish together. The Hummingbird liked to eat the small fish, like minnows and the Heron preferred big fish._

_"One day the hummingbird said that he thought that maybe there weren't enough fish for both of them to eat, so he proposed a race. He said whoever won got all the fish in the world. The heron thought this was good idea and he agreed to it._

_"They decided that they would race for four days, to a far away river. There was a dead tree on the bank and whoever landed in the top of that tree first would win all the fish in the world._

_"They started out the next morning. The Hummingbird zipped along at a fast pace, flying around and around the Heron, who was moving steadily forward, flapping his giant wings. Then Hummingbird would be distracted by the pretty flowers along the way. He would flit from one to the other, tasting the nectar. When Hummingbird noticed that Heron was ahead of him, he hurried to catch up with him, zooming ahead as fast as he could, and leaving Heron far behind. Heron just kept flying steadily forward, flapping his giant wings._

_"Hummingbird was tired from all his flitting. When it got dark, he decided to rest. He found a nice spot to perch and slept all night long. But Heron just kept flying steadily forward all night long, flapping his giant wings._

_"When Hummingbird woke in the morning, Heron was far ahead. Hummingbird had to fly as fast as he could to catch up. He zoomed past the big, awkward Heron and kept going until Heron had disappeared behind him. Then Hummingbird noticed some pretty flowers nearby. He zipped over to them and tasted their nectar. He was enjoying the pretty scenery and didn't notice Heron flap-flapping passed him with his great wings._

_"Hummingbird finally remembered that he was racing with Heron, and flew as fast as he could to catch up with the big, awkward bird. Then he zipped along, flying around and around the Heron, who kept moving steadily forward, flapping his giant wings._

_"For two more days, the Hummingbird and the Heron raced toward the far-distant riverbank with the dead tree that was the finish line. Hummingbird had a good time sipping nectar and flitting among the flowers and resting himself at night. Heron stoically kept up a steady flap-flap-flapping of his giant wings, propelling himself forward through the air all day and all night._

_"Hummingbird woke from his sleep the morning of the fourth day, refreshed and invigorated. He flew zip-zip toward the riverbank with its dead tree. When it came into view, he saw Heron perched at the top of the tree! Heron had won the race by flying straight and steady through the night while Hummingbird slept._

_So from then on, the Heron has owned all the fish in the rivers and lakes, and the Hummingbird has sipped from the nectar of the many flowers which he enjoyed so much during the race."_

"You think that's true?" I asked him when he was done.

He shrugged. "Who knows? So much crazy shit has happened; I don't know what I believe anymore."

"But you used to, didn't you?" I asked him. "You used to believe all those old legends?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Well, we're one quarter Cherokee on my Daddy's side. Well, me and Merle are. I guess you're an eighth."

"Did my Mama have any Native American in her?" I asked. He shrugged.

"I don't know." He said. "Her people came from Savannah originally. A lot French, I think." He looked down at me again. "You're asking a lot of questions about you mother lately." He said. "Skyla," Her name stuck in his throat a little and he swallowed hard. "She told me the questions you was askin' last night."

"I'm just curious." I told him. "Sometimes I wonder where she is."

"I expect she lit out for L.A." He told me. "She wanted to be in the Soaps. Days of Our Lives or whatever." He chuckled a little. "Your Daddy used to get so mad, he'd come home and she'd be parked in front of the tv, with her stories on, you sittin' in your pumpkin seat beside her, eyes glued to the screen. Baby loved her stories."

"Did you like my Mama?" I asked him.

He nodded. "I liked her all right. She started datin' Merle when they were in high school. When he did stints in juvie, she'd be runnin' around with some other guy, but when he got out, they got right back together." He tussled my hair a little. "Come on, now, lets go to sleep. Don't know what tomorrow might bring, do we?"

He kissed the top of my head and we both went to sleep. I'm not sure how long I slept, but when I woke up, it was pitch black out and I had to pee.

"Uncle Daryl." I whispered. I shook him a little, but he swatted my hand away. Dammit, I couldn't hold it anymore. So I did something very stupid. I got the small flashlight out of the glovebox and I slid out of the truck.

I saw my Daddy's bike parked and realized he was asleep in the truck bed. He must not have found anything important, or he would've woken us up.

I walked to just beyond the tree line so I could pee. When I was finished, I grabbed some leaves and wiped and pulled my jeans up. I was just preparing to walk back to the truck when something grabbed my arm. I opened my mouth and let loose with a scream.

* * *

**Authors Note's: The story that Daryl tells Libby is a real Native American myth, from the Hitchiti Tribe. Since he knew the Cherokee Rose story, and he did the whole ear necklace thing, I thought it was safe to assume he's well versed in Native American lore and customs.**


	9. Chapter Nine

A hand clamped down hard over my mouth.

"Shut up, kid!" A man's deep voice said to me. "You wanna bring every damn walker in the area down on us?"

I shook my head, his hand still on my mouth. "I'm gonna let your mouth free." He said. "You gonna be quiet?" I nodded and he let me go.

I turned to look at him. He as tall, taller than Uncle Daryl, but not as tall as Daddy, with dark hair and olive skin. "You scared me!" I said.

He smiled. "Well, shit, you think I expected to find a little girl peeing out here in the middle of nowhere? _You_ scared _me_."

"I not a little girl." I said. "I'm thirteen."

"What's your name?" He asked. "What're you doing out here by yourself? Don't you know how dangerous it is?"

"Liberty Dixon." I stuck out my hand and he shook it, grinning. "And I'm not by myself; I'm with my Dad and my uncle."

"They let you come into the woods alone?" He asked, slightly incredulous.

"Well…no." I admitted. "But they're both asleep and I had to pee."

"Liberty!" I heard my uncle yelling for me. "Liberty Belle!"

"That's my Uncle Daryl." I said. "Come on, I'll take you to him."

The man, whose name I still didn't know, followed me from the woods and back to the interstate.

"Goddamn it Liberty, what the hell were you thinking, going into the woods alone!" Uncle Daryl was standing outside the truck, pulling his boots on. "I oughta take you over my knee, girl, and don't you think I'm kidding." He finally looked up and noticed the man. "Who the fuck are you?"

"Um, Shane Walsh." The man, Shane, put his hand out and my uncle stared at it, but didn't shake. Shane pulled his hand back. "I found your girl here wondering the woods."

"I wasn't wondering!" I said. "I was_ peeing_!"

Uncle Daryl took a deep breath. "If you had to go, why didn't you wake me up?" He asked. His face was screwed up in that way it gets when he's really mad and I knew I was in for it later.

"I tried!" I protested. "But you wouldn't wake up!"

"So why didn't you just go here by the truck?"

I felt my face burn. "Someone might've seen me."

"Really, Liberty, and who exactly would've seen you?"

"Look, I hate to break up this touching family moment, but its not safe out here. There's walkers all over the place." Shane said. "We've got a camp up at the rock quarry, about a mile and half away. Why don't you all come on up?"

"Walkers?" My uncle asked and Shane nodded. "Is that what those things are called?"

"Yeah. And it's not safe out here." He said again. Uncle Daryl bit his lip for a second.

"All right." He said. "Just let me wake my brother up."

He tried for several minutes to wake Daddy up, but he wouldn't budge.

"We're a family of heavy sleepers." I explained to Shane.

"I see that." He said. "Look," He told Uncle Daryl. "Why don't you just let him sleep and we'll go ahead and drive on up?"

"He'll kill me if I leave his bike here." Uncle Daryl said. Shane sighed.

"Then I'll drive your truck and you take the bike and follow me."

"I don't know…"

"Can't we do that, Uncky?" I asked. I shivered in spite of the heat. "I'm scared."

My uncle sighed. "Fine." He said. He pointed at me. "But I ain't through with you, Missy. We'll finish later."

It was my turn to sigh. "Can't wait." I muttered.

I rode in the truck with Shane. He seemed pretty nice.

"So you're thirteen?" He asked me and I nodded. "That's good. We got a couple of other kids up at camp around your age. Carl and Sophia are both twelve."

I nodded and turned around to make sure Uncle Daryl was behind us.

"So that's you uncle?" Shane asked and I nodded.

"Yeah, I live with him and my Dad." I answered absent-mindedly.

"Where's your Mom?"

I shrugged. "I dunno. She took off a long time ago. When I was four." I looked at him. "You ask a lot of questions."

He smiled. "I'm curious. Where were y'all headed?"

"Atlanta." I replied and he shook his head.

"Then it's a damn good thing I found you." He said. "Atlanta isn't safe. It's all walkers down there."

I wrapped my blanket around me as we pulled up a hill. I could see tents, campfires, and even an old RV. We parked and I climbed out. Not a lot of people were still awake at such a late hour, but those who were kept looking at us. I took my uncle's hand and he squeezed it reassuringly.

"Well, this is it." Shane said to Uncle Daryl. "Y'all are welcome to set up a tent or whatever, but uh, I'd like to talk to you first." He looked at me. "Honey, you can go make yourself comfortable by the fire, if you want. I'll only keep your uncle for a minute."

I hesitated and looked up at Uncle Daryl. He nodded. "Go on, Libby." He said. "I ain't known you to be shy before."

"Ain't never been no damn zombies wondering around either." I said, but I went over to the fire.

There were about five people sitting there, an older man with a white beard, three women, one with long brown hair, and two with blonde, and an Asian guy.

"Hello." The older man said. "Have a seat. What might your name be?"

"Liberty Belle Dixon." I said shyly. Only I would wait till the end of the damn worl to turn shy.

"Liberty Belle?" He asked and I nodded. "That's a pretty name. I'm Dale."

"Hi." I said. The others introduced themselves too. The woman with the brown hair was Lori, and two blondes were sisters, Amy and Andrea. The younger guy was Glenn.

"Is that guy your Dad?" Glenn asked and I shook my head.

"No, he's my uncle." I replied. "My Dad's asleep in the back of our truck."

A few minutes later, Shane and Uncle Daryl joined us.

"Are we staying?" I asked. He nodded.

"For awhile." He answered. He sat down with me.

"I have a question." Lori asked. She was looking at me. "It's about your name, it's very patriotic. Where did you get it?"

"She was born on the Fourth of July." Uncle Daryl answered for me. "A week early. If she'd been born when she was due, she would've been Courtney Nicole."

I made a face, still thankful that I had an original name and not something picked off a soap opera.

"You raised her?" Lori asked him. He nodded.

"I helped." He answered.

They talked more, mostly about the strange things going and Uncle Daryl told his story about the chupacabra. I giggled and he frowned at me.

"I'm sorry!" I said. "But it's been five years and I still don't believe it. Besides, Skyla said she didn't see it and she was with you."

"She wasn't looking in the right spot." He said. I listened as they talked more, but I was slowly drifting in and out, watching the dying fire.

"Libby?" I felt my uncle's arms lift me up. It was too dark to put up the tent so we were sleeping in the truck tonight anyway.

"We're really gonna stay here for awhile?" I asked him, sleepily.

"Yeah," He said. "If your Daddy don't have a fit about it."

* * *

**Authors Note's: And there we have it folks, they're at the camp. Is Merle gonna have a it when he wakes up? But of course! But that's for the next chapter, I'm afraid...**


	10. Chapter Ten

As expected. My Dad threw an absolute fit when he woke up to find us in a camp with a bunch of people he didn't know. I think he was madder about Uncle Daryl having made the decision without him. I sat on the tailgate of the pickup and watched them argue as I ate a banana.

"Those things are everywhere." Uncle Daryl told him. "We've already lost Skyla. You wanna lose Liberty too?"

That shut my Dad up for awhile.

We set our tent up off to the side a little, near a family called Peletier, a man named Ed, and his wife and daughter, Carol and Sophia.

"Which one is your Dad?" Sophia asked me. We were sitting together in a small patch of grass between the two tents.

"The tall one." I answered. "The short one is my Uncle Daryl."

Sophia giggled and put her head down a little. "He's cute. Your Uncle, I mean."

I picked up a stick and drew in the dirt. "I hear that a lot, not surprisingly."

"Sophia!" We both looked up to see a boy, our age, coming towards us. Looking at him made me sad, he reminded me of Josh. "Hey."

"Hey, Carl." She said. He sat down beside us. "This is Libby. She came last night with her Dad and her Uncle Daryl."

"Hi." I said, smiling at him. He was kinda cute.

"Hi."

"So, what's up?" Sophia asked. Carl shrugged.

"Nothing." He said. "What're you guys doing?"

"Hanging out." Sophia answered. "We're bored."

"Totally bored." I agreed.

"On a normal day, we'd be in school." Carl said.

"I like school." I replied.

"What grade are you in…_were_ you in?" Sophia asked.

"Eighth." I answered. "I was supposed to be graduating to the high school in a few weeks."

"I'm in the seventh." Sophia said. She flopped out on her stomach.

"Me too." Carl sighed. "It's hot. You guys wanna see if we can go swimming down in the quarry? Amy said she'd take us, if our parents say okay."

"All right." Sophia said. "You in, Libby?"

"Let me ask my Dad." I said. I got up and walked over to him. "Uh, hey, Daddy?"

"What?" He looked up at me and I already knew what the answer was gonna be, just by the look on his face.

"Can I go swimming down at the quarry with the others?" I asked, shifting my weight from one foot to another.

"No." He said. I knew I probably shouldn't, not when he was in a mood, but I couldn't help it.

"Why not?"

"Because I said, goddamn it!" He snapped.

"Merle, I don't see what letting her go swimming will hurt…" Uncle Daryl started and Daddy turned on him.

"Oh, you telling me how to raise my girl now, little brother?" He asked. "You making the rules for her now?"

Uncle Daryl dropped his eyes. "No." He said. "I just thought…since it was so hot…it might maybe keep her occupied for awhile. Keep her out from underfoot."

Honestly, I don't think I've been "underfoot" since I was a toddler, but whatever. It worked. My Dad waved his hand carelessly and nodded.

"Go on, then." He said and I ran off to join the others before he changed his mind.

Sophia had a swimsuit I could borrow. "You can have it." She said. "Glenn found them for me on one of his scavenging trips."

I stepped inside Dale's RV bathroom to put it on. It was a cute one-piece suit, white with neon colored leopard spots all over it and hot pink bows at the hips. Not exactly my style, but better than nothing. I felt a little self conscious as I stepped out of the RV.

"Here, let me help you with the sunblock." Carol, Sophia's Mom, had walked up to me. She rubbed a ton of the gook on my bare back, my arms and the back of my neck.

Uncle Daryl had come up while she was rubbing me down. "You be careful, all right?" He told me. "If you see any snakes, you move on away from it."

"I know, Uncky." I said. "I'm not stupid, jeez." I looked up at him and smiled. "And thanks…for talking Daddy into letting me go. What's wrong with him?"

Uncle Daryl shrugged. "Who knows? He'll get over it. Just…just be careful, all right."

"We will be, Mr. Dixon." Amy said.

"Daryl." He told her and she nodded, grinning.

"Daryl."

"Oh God." I sighed.

"Don't you worry about your niece." Shane told him. "Glenn's going too, and he's good at taking the walkers out."

My uncle shook his head. "I'll worry about her anyway." He tugged my ponytail. "Have fun."

"All right."

We did have a good time, splashing around in the water. If felt good. Glenn and Amy sat on the bank and watched us play. I floated on my back and stared up at the crystalline blue sky. It reflected off the water and made an optical mirror of itself. If I looked at it for too long I would start to get dizzy.

"What're you doing, Libby?" Sophia asked, swimming along side me.

"Looking at the sky." I told her. She began to float on her back too, and we floated together, side by side.


	11. Chapter Eleven

The next several days seemed to blur together. It was like one really long camping trip.

I hate camping.

I spent most of my time with Sophia and the little Morales girl, Eliza. I was older than both of them and they seemed to take everything I said as gospel. Okay, that was kinda fun. Having never been an overly popular kid, I enjoyed the attention.

I spent the other part of my time trying to stay out of my Dad's way. He still wasn't to keen about being there and whatever drugs he had brought with him were surely beginning to run out. He snapped at everyone, but was particularly hard on Uncle Daryl, who avoided him by hunting most days, bringing back squirrel, rabbits, and even deer sometimes.

I liked to talk to Dale too. He was very nice, almost grandfatherly, something I had never had. He lad lots of books in his RV and he told me I was welcome to borrow any of them as long as I took good care of them.

"I will." I promised.

"You like to read, huh?" He asked. I nodded.

"Yeah…I miss going to the library." I looked at a series of marks on his wall. "What's this?"

"Oh, that's how I keep track of the days." He answered. "By my mark, it should be May the thirtieth."

I sighed and he looked at me. "What's wrong?"

"Today's the thirtieth." I answered. "I should've been graduating the Eighth grade today." I scuffed my toe against the floor. "Oh well. The principal is probably a walker by now anyway."

He smiled at that and I grabbed the books I wanted. "Thanks." I told him.

I was starting back towards our tent, when I was hailed by Lori.

"Can you come over here for a second?" She asked.

I detoured my way around to where she and Carol were sitting. "What's up?" I asked. Lori held up a pair of scissors.

"How about I trim your bangs up a little?" She asked. I shook my head.

"My Daddy doesn't like for me to cut my hair very much." I said. "He says ladies don't have short hair." I glanced at Carol. "Uh, no offense."

She shook her head. "None taken."

"Just your bangs." Lori said. "You're starting to look like a sheepdog. And honestly," She dropped her voice. "Do you think your Dad will even notice?"

I shook my head. I knew he wouldn't, but still. "Well…all right." I said. She directed me to a lawn chair and I sat. She covered me with an old apron and wet the front of my hair.

"Now hold your head straight and still." She told me and I did the best I could. We were about halfway through when I heard my Dad's voice.

"Now, what the hell is this?" He stormed up to us. "What're you doing to my girl?"

"I'm trimming her bangs." Lori said, not even looking up. "She was getting shaggy." She did look up at him now. "If you want, I'll cut your hair next."

"No, I don't want you to cut my hair!" He said loudly. "And I don't want you cuttin' hers!" He grabbed my arm and pulled me from the chair.

"Ow!" I said as my arm popped when he pulled on it. "Daddy, you're hurtin' me!"

Maybe I should take the time to say that my Daddy never beat me or anything. In fact, he only took my over his knee a handful of times. But around this time he was acting strange…stranger than usual, and in that minute I was afraid of him.

"Let go of her!" Lori said. "You're going to break her arm!"

"Daddy, please…" I said as he yanked me again. I could feel tears beginning to well up in my eyes. Not only from the pain, but because I was embarrassed. People were watching. I could see Shane making his way over.

"What's going on?"

Never in my life had I been so glad to hear my Uncle Daryl's voice. He had appeared out of the woods with a string of squirrel over his shoulder.

"He's hurting her!" Lori said.

I guess it was then that my uncle really took the scene in, my Dad dragging me back to our tent by my arm, the tears now openly streaming down my face.

Merle, let go of her!" He said. "Jesus, what's the matter with you?"

He let go of me then and I fell in the dirt. Lori came to me and helped me up. Daddy stepped up to Uncle Daryl.

"What'd you say to me, you little shithead?" He said to him.

Usually my uncle would back down, which puzzled me. I knew he had taken on men twice as big as my Dad, yet when it came to him, Uncle Daryl acted afraid. Not this time though. This time, he pushed past my Dad and came to me.

"You all right, baby?" He asked. I nodded.

"I think so."

Not getting any reaction from Uncle Daryl, my Dad retreated back to our tent.

"What happened?" Uncle Daryl asked, looking from me to Lori.

"I was just trimming her bangs up." Lori said. She indicted my hair, which was only half cut. "And he just flew off the handle like a crazy person. Started yanking on her. I thought he was gonna break her arm for a minute."

Uncle Daryl sat his squirrels down and examined my arm. "Looks all right." He said, moving it certain ways. "Does that hurt?"

"No." I said. I wiped my face. "Can I finish getting my bangs trimmed now? I can't go around like this; I'll look like a moron."

He smiled, slightly. "Yeah, go on." He said. "I'm gonna go have a talk with your Daddy."

"Daryl, wait." Shane had come over. "Look, I hate to say this, but its gotta be done. You and Libby are welcome to stay, but if your brother doesn't start controlling himself, he's gonna have to go."

Uncle Daryl looked at him, hard, for a second. "I'll talk to him." He said finally.

I sat back down and Lori continued on my hair. "He didn't used to be like this." I said and she looked up into my eyes. "My Dad, I mean. He's never been…you know, Ward Cleaver, but he was all right. But now…now he's just acting so weird."

"Weird times." Carol said and I shifted my eyes to her. She was the only one not looking at me with pity and I was grateful for it.

We all knew her husband beat on her. Their tent was next to ours and sometimes in the night, we could hear them. Uncle Daryl wanted to do something about it, but Daddy said it wasn't any of our concern. I hated it though, to hear him slap her and hear Sophia cry. I would just turn over on my side and Uncle Daryl would put his arm around me. And for a little bit, I'd feel safe.

To this day, I'm not sure exactly what Uncle Daryl told my Daddy, but whatever it was, he acted better for a few days. He came to me later.

"Hair looks nice." He said. I looked up at him.

"Thanks." I said, looking back down at my book.

"What's that you're readin' there?" He asked.

"Wuthering Heights." I answered. "I borrowed it from Dale."

"Oh." He reached out and touched my head and instinctively, I flinched away. He looked down at his hands. "Liberty, about earlier-."

"It's fine." I cut in. "Don't worry about it."

He looked at me. "You sure?" And I nodded.

"Yep." I went back to my book and I expected him to go back to whatever he'd been doing, but he didn't. He just sat beside me. After a few more seconds, he reached his hand out again and this time, I didn't flinch. I let him run his hand through my hair and rest his hand on my back.

"Why don't you read me some of that book?" He asked after a few more seconds of silence. I stared at him in surprise.

"What?"

"You heard me." He smiled. "Scoot on over here and read out loud to your old man."

So I scooted next to him and began to read.

"_Chapter Three._ _While__ leading the way upstairs, she recommended that I should hide the candle, and not make a noise; for her master had an odd notion about the chamber she would put me in, and never let anybody lodge there willingly. I asked the reason. She did not know, she answered: she had only lived there a year or two; and they had so many queer goings on, she could not begin to be curious."_

I'm sure he didn't understand but half of what I was reading, but he sat and listened anyway, until my throat hurt from reading aloud. Over the next few days he seemed a little better, but no one was more surprised than me and Uncle Daryl when he volunteered to go on the scavenging mission.

* * *

**Authors Note's: My side story to this one, Wild Horses, should be up later today or tomorrow, so watch for it. Its all Skyla/Daryl, starting from the time they were kids up till her death.**


	12. Chapter Twelve

**Authors Note's: Just a few things real quick! One: my side story, Wild Horses is now up, so check it out! Its all Daryl/Skyla. Two: I would've had this up sooner, but I've been sick all day, so bear with me. And three: after this chapter, the action will really pick up again, I swear!**

* * *

"You'll be careful?"

I think I've already said this, but I think it bears saying again: we Dixon's are not a touchy-feely bunch. I'd hugged my Uncle more in the last few weeks than I had since I was a tiny kid. But ever since my Dad volunteered to go with the others into the city, I couldn't seem to stop hugging him.

Our last night in the tent before he left, I was snuggled in my sleeping bag between the two of them. It was hot; their combined body heat was like an oven and I sweated through my pajamas most nights, but I felt safe. I knew that if one of those things did try to get into our tent, they'd never make it to me.

"Of course I'll be careful." Daddy said to me. "Shit, girl, this ain't my first time at the rodeo."

"Well, actually, it is." Uncle Daryl was lying on his left side. "Unless you been in some other damn zombie apocalypse you ain't tellin' us about?"

"Shut up." Daddy told him. "I'll be careful." He told me. "Now, I got you something." He said. "I snagged it from their precious stash." He held it out to me.

It was a small bag of sour cream and onion chips, my favorite. "All for me?" I asked. He nodded and I tore into them.

"You shouldn't have taken those, Merle." Uncle Daryl said. "That food's for emergencies."

"Oh, fuck, what's one little old bag of chips gonna hurt?" Daddy said.

"Don't suppose you saw any Pepsi's in there, did you?" I asked. He laughed and shook his head.

"No, but here." He handed me a cold bottle of water. I grimaced, I hate water, but it was better than nothing, so I took and I drank. I sighed and lay back on my bed.

"Wish we had some hot dogs to roast." I said. Uncle Daryl smiled.

"And some marshmallows." He added. "Roast 'em till their black on the outside and melty on the inside."

I started to say something else, but a small cry from the tent next to ours stopped me. We all turned to watch the shadows of the Peletier family and I knew Ed was knocking Carol around again.

Uncle Daryl made a noise deep in his throat and started to get up, but Daddy's hand shot out and grabbed his wrist.

"Ain't none of our concern, baby brother." He said.

Uncle Daryl huffed. "What if that was Liberty's husband knocking her around?" He asked.

"I'd shoot the bastard." Daddy said evenly. "But that woman and little girl ain't our kin and we ain't gettin' involved. It's like I done told you. Now stay put."

Uncle Daryl huffed again, but he didn't try to get up anymore. Daddy let go of his wrist.

"I'd never be stupid enough to marry a man who beat on me." I muttered. "And anyway, I ain't never getting married."

Daddy grinned. "All little girls say that." He said.

"Well I mean it." I pulled a hairbrush out of my bag and began to run it through my hair. Daddy took it from me and began to do it himself. He hadn't brushed my hair since I was a little girl. I guess we were all feeling a little nostalgic that night.

"I used to brush your Mama's hair, you know." He said. "When we first moved in together, long before you were born."

"You think she's all right?" I asked him. It had been a question that had been on my mind lately.

Daddy sighed and looked at Uncle Daryl, who had sat up.

"Hard to say." Uncle Daryl said finally. I nodded. He always got uncomfortable when I brought up my mother, I thought.

"Why don't you try and get some sleep, huh?" Daddy said. "Got an early day tomorrow."

I lay back down between them. I wasn't tired, but I didn't protest. It wasn't long after Daddy had turned the lamp off that both of them were breathing deep and even and I knew they were asleep.

I wait a few more minutes to make sure and then started to make my way out of the tent. I froze when I felt Uncle Daryl moving around. He rolled onto his stomach and muttered something about how he didn't _want_ waffles, Merle and I sighed in relief. He was just talking in his sleep again.

I crawled out of the tent and breathed in the cool night air. I looked over by the nearly dead campfire. There was only one small figure sitting there. Carl.

I made my way over to him. "Hey." I said. "What up?"

He looked up. "Oh, hey, Libby." He scooted over on the log and I sat down beside him. "Nothing. Thought you guys went to bed."

I shrugged. "I couldn't sleep. It's hot in there. And besides, my uncle talks in his sleep and it annoys me."

"Oh yeah?" Carl looked up in interest. "What's he talk about?"

"Waffles."

He looked at me like I might be joking, but I held his gaze. "What're you doing out here?" I asked and he shrugged.

"Thinking about my Dad." He said. "I miss him."

I nodded. "I miss Skyla." I said.

"Who's Skyla?"

"She was…my Uncle Daryl's girlfriend." I answered. Well, it was really a lie. "She…she got bit when we were leaving our house."

"I'm sorry." Carl said and I smiled.

"Me too."

We were quiet for a little bit and then Carl looked at me.

"Have you ever had a boyfriend?" He asked and I shook my head.

"No." I said. "I went to a dance with a boy, but he wasn't my boyfriend. Why, have you?"

He grinned. "No, I've never had a boyfriend either."

I shoved him lightly. "Shut up. You know what I mean."

"No." He answered, serious now. "There was this girl in my class, but…you know. She was popular."

"What were you?" I asked.

"A geek."

I shook my head. "You're not a geek."

"I'm not?"

"Nope."

We sat there in silence, watching the fire die out.

The next morning I hugged my Dad close to me.

"Please be careful." I said into the front of his vest.

"I will be." He stroked my hair, once again being oddly gentle. I looked up at him, his blue eyes the same shade as mine.

"Promise?"

"Cross my heart." He said. "I always come back, don't I?"

I nodded. I was determined not to cry. I was going to be brave. Daddy looked at Uncle Daryl.

"Take care of her, huh?" He said and Uncle Daryl nodded.

"I always do, don't I?" He replied and my Dad looked at him, hard, for a second, but didn't say anything.

After they were gone, I sat on the same log as the night before. Amy had some magazines out she was looking through. I picked one up and began to flip through. Carl was looking over my shoulder.

"I hope Taylor Swift is a walker." He said.

"Carl!" Lori scolded.

"What?" He looked around. "She sucks."


	13. Chapter Thirteen

They hadn't been gone even a day when Shane made his way over to me and Uncle Daryl.

"I hate to ask this…" He began.

"But you will anyway." Uncle Daryl said, looking up at him. "Out with it, then."

"We're running low on meat and you're by far the best damn hunter I've ever seen, so…"

"So you want me to go off and hunt up some grub?" Uncle Daryl asked. Shane nodded and he sighed. "What about my girl here? I promised her Daddy I'd look after her and I sure as shit ain't takin' her into the woods. She talks too damn loud, scares the game off."

"Hey!" I said and he shrugged.

"Well, hell, Libby. It's true."

"She'll be fine here." Shane said. "She can stay with Lori and Carl."

Uncle Daryl turned to me. "What do you think?" I blinked.

"You're asking _me_?"

"I'm lookin' at you, ain't I? What do you think?"

I was surprised. No one _ever_ asked my opinion. "I think you might as well. I'll be fine with Carl and Lori. Maybe you can bag us a deer." I told him and he nodded, and then looked back at Shane.

"All right." He said. "I'll do it."

So that's how I ended up spending two nights in a tent with Lori and Carl. I shared a cot with Lori, which wasn't as weird as I thought it would be.

I sat in the afternoon sunlight, watching Lori cut Carl's hair and Shane clean his gun. I was trying not to be worried about my Dad and the others. I mean, really trying.

Shane was trying to distract us, telling Carl he was gonna teach him to catch frogs. "You can come too, Libby." He said.

"Pass." I looked at him. "I like to eat frog legs, though."

He smiled "A girl after my own heart."

"Ew!" Carl said.

"No, yum!" Shane said and nudged me. I grinned.

"No, he's right." Lori looked at the two of us. "Ew."

"Yeah, well, when we get down to that last can of beans, you're gonna be lovin' them frog legs, lady." Shane nodded. "I can hear it already. Um, Shane, do you think I can have a second helping?" I giggled at his impression of her.

"I doubt that." Lori said. Shane scoffed.

"Even Libby likes 'em." He said to Carl. "Don't listen to your Mom, man. We'll be heroes, feeding these folks Cajun style Kermit legs."

"I would rather eat Miss Piggy." Lori said. She paused. "Yes, that came out wrong."

I looked at Carl and he shrugged. Adults are so weird.

"Heroes, son, you and me." Shane said. "Spoken of in song and legend."

There was a slightly lull in the conversation and that's when we heard it. It sounded like…a car alarm?

"Talk to me, Dale!" Shane stood up and hurried over to Dale's RV, where the older man was standing on top, keeping watch.

"I can't tell yet." He said.

"Is it them?" Amy asked. "Are they back?"

"Well, I'll be damned." Dale said, grinning.

"What?" Amy asked. "What is it?"

"A stolen car would be my guess." He answered.

I edged closer to the group, afraid to get my hopes too high, as Glenn pulled up in a red sports car, the alarm wailing. He hopped out grinning as Amy bombarded him with questions about her sister.

"Everyone's fine." He said. "Well, not Merle so much…"

It felt like a punch to the gut and the thing is, everyone was so caught up in the car alarm, they didn't notice me sinking slowly to the ground for a few minutes.

"You all right?" Sophia asked when she noticed me sitting there.

"My Dad…" I looked up at Glenn. "What happened to my Dad?"

"Oh shit." He muttered. "Look, Libby, you need to wait for the others to get back, they can explain it to you-."

"Where's my Dad?" I screamed.

"I don't know!" Glenn said. "He was acting crazy on the roof and…and…"

Another vehicle was approaching, but I wasn't paying any attention. I lifted myself out of the dirt and walked slowly back to my family's tent. No one came after me.

Glenn said my Dad was acting crazy. I can believe that, but what had happened up there? Was he dead? I lay down on my sleeping bag and curled myself into a ball. First Skyla, now Daddy.

I curled myself up tighter and stayed like that for a long time.

I'm not sure how long I stayed in my tent. I would not allow myself to cry. No tears, my father wouldn't want that. After a bit, someone knocked on the flap of my tent.

"Hello?" It was a man's voice, one I didn't recognize. "Um, Liberty? Can I speak to you please?"

I unzipped the flap and let him in. "Who're you?" I asked not caring if I was being rude.

"I'm Rick Grimes." He said. He squatted down so that we were eye level.

"Grimes?" I was distracted for a minute. "Wait, are you Carl's dad?"

He smiled. "Yeah, I am. And you're Merle's daughter." He looked at me. "You don't look much like him."

"Yeah, I hear that a lot." I sat back down. "Look, do you want something?"

"I'm the one that handcuffed your Dad to the roof." He said and I sat forward.

"Excuse me?"

He sighed. "Your Dad, he was acting crazy. Now, you're what, thirteen? Fourteen? You know he ain't always the most level headed of people."

I nodded. I knew he spoke the truth, that as normal as my Dad could act sometimes, that's what it was, an _act._

"I didn't want to do it." Rick told me. "But he was endangering the rest of us." He looked at me again. "Do you understand what I'm telling you, Liberty? They say you're very smart."

I swallowed and then nodded. "I understand." I said. What else could I do? I was at the mercy of these people, and as much as I hated to admit it, they were right. If my Dad was endangering the group…

"Mr. Grimes?" I said.

"Call me Rick."

"Okay, Rick." I rubbed my hand over my face. "You're not gonna have such an easy time with my Uncle Daryl as you had with me. He's…he's not gonna be happy."

"Yeah, I was fore-warned." He said. "Liberty, why don't you come on out to the campfire, huh?"

I nodded and let him lead me out. Carl looked elated to have his father back and I felt a surge of bitterness. Lucky him.

T-Dog, a black man I had only spoken to a handful of times, approached me. "Libby," He said. "It's my fault. I had the key and I was going to unlock your Daddy, but I dropped it. I got scared and I ran. I'm sorry."

I nodded. "I understand." I said.

I sat at the fire with the others and ate a little bit of food. When it started to get cold, I let Lori drape a blanket around me. I felt numb and dazed and I wondered if this is what my Daddy had felt when he got high.

I was drifting in and out of conversation when Dale said something that snapped me back.

"Have you all given any thought to Daryl Dixon?" He asked. "He's not gonna be happy his brother got left behind and I don't think he's gonna be as forgiving as Libby."

"I dropped the key." T-Dog said. "It's on me."

"I'm the one who cuffed him to the roof." Rick interjected. "That makes it mine."

"Guys, it's not a competition." Glenn said. "I don't mean to bring race into this, and" He looked over at me. "No offense to you, Libby, but I think it might sound better coming from a white guy."

"I did what I did." T-Dog said. "Hell if I'm gonna hide from it."

I snorted, but to myself. Is that really how people saw us? Backwoods trailer trash? I could make as many straight A's as I wanted, be in the top percent of kids in the state, but it didn't matter. I was just a redneck to everyone and that would never change. I started to get up, but Rick reached out and caught me.

"We could lie." Amy said, her eyes on me.

"Or tell the truth." Andrea's eyes were also on me. "Merle was outta control. If someone hadn't done something, he would've gotten us all killed." Andrea's eyes went from mine to Lori's. "Your husband did what was necessary, and if Merle got left behind it was no one's fault but Merle's."

"And that's what we tell Daryl?" Dale asked, shaking his head. "I don't see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you?"

He looked around. "Word to the wise: we're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt."

Rick looked over at me. "Liberty, can you help us talk him down?"

"That's not fair." T-Dog spoke up. "Don't put that on her. I was scared and I ran. I'm not ashamed of it."

"We were all scared." Andrea said. "We all ran. What's your point?"

"I stopped long enough to chain that door." T-Dog replied. "That staircase is narrow, only half dozen geeks could squeeze in there at one time, and that ain't enough to break through it. Not that chain, not that padlock. My point is, Dixon's alive. He's still up there handcuffed to that roof. And that's on all of us."

He got up and walked away then.

I yawned and so did Carl.

"I think it's about time for bed." Lori said.

"I'll sleep in my own tent tonight." I told her. She shook her head.

"Honey, you can't stay in there alone." She said. "You need to stay with us."

"With your husband back, there really isn't room." I said. "I'll be fine."

"She can stay with me and Amy." Andrea said. "That be okay, Libby?"

I shrugged and nodded. "Yeah. I guess."

"It'll be like a slumber party." Amy joked and I smiled weakly. I really wasn't in a joking mood.

* * *

**Authors Note's: The shows actual dialogue I'm doing from memory, or occasionally checking the show on Netflix to make sure I'm getting everything pretty much right, so if some of it is off, I'm sorry. Also, I had trouble with Libby's reaction. I'm not sure if I wrote it correctly. I knew she'd be angry and hurt, but i also feel like she'd be understanding. She knows her father and how he is. Let me know what you think, huh?**


	14. Chapter Fourteen

I walked through most of the next day in a haze. I knew my uncle would be back that day or the next one and I was dreading it. He was closer to my father than anyone had ever been and Dale was right, he wasn't gonna be happy.

It was wash day and I had deemed myself, as the only female of my family, one of the washers. It wasn't fun, but I felt like I was doing my part at least. And scrubbing on the washboard kept me distracted. And when we would bring each load the clothes back to the camp, I helped Andrea and Amy and Lori hang them up.

Amy was trying to distract me, too, with conversation.

"Favorite actor?" She asked. I thought for a minute.

"Ryan Gosling." I said.

"Ohh, he's hot." She nodded. "And I loved The Notebook."

"Me too." I said. "What about you? Who's your favorite?"

Andrea answered for her. "She loves her some Leo."

"Titanic is the greatest movie of all time." Amy said. Andrea shook her head.

"No way." She said. "Dirty Dancing is the greatest movie of all time."

"You're both wrong." I said and they looked at me. "The greatest movie of all time is Footloose."

This is what we were talking about when Rick came over. He had just woken up. I knew I should be bitter towards the man who handcuffed my Dad to a roof, but…I just couldn't work up the anger. Not today.

I was hanging up a shirt when I heard the screams. I could hear Carl shouting for his Mom and Dad and half the camp took off in that direction. The women stopped when we got to the kids, but I followed the men, staying a few paces behind them.

There was a walker, and it was eating a deer. I felt my gorge rise, but I didn't look away, even when Dale chopped its head off. I didn't look away, in fact, until I heard my uncle's voice.

"Son of a bitch!" He said. "That's my deer! I tracked that thing for miles!"

I backed away before he saw me and hightailed it back to the tent. I didn't want to be around when they told him what had happened.

A few minutes later, I heard him come into the camp. "Merle!" he shouted. "Merle, get your ugly ass out here! I got us some squirrels; let's stew 'em up!"

It was quiet and I heard a murmur of voices, but nothing I could make out until I heard him shout. "Are you saying you handcuffed my brother to a roof…and you left him there?"

I stepped out of the tent, thinking it might be better to face him now, in time to see a line of squirrels go flying over Rick's head and my Uncle Daryl tackle him to the ground. He pulled his hunting knife off his belt and I felt a chill go through me. My uncle, who I'd seen nurse a baby bird back to health; he wouldn't really stab a living person, would he?

I felt frozen, my feet stuck to the ground and I watched as Rick and Shane attempted to calm him down. He fought back at first, but after a few seconds, they were able to let him go.

"To hell with all y'all!" He shouted. "Just tell me where he is, so I can go get him back!"

And that's when I felt myself come back to life.

"_No_!" I screamed and everyone in the camp jumped. I ran the twenty yards or so across to my uncle and launched myself at him, practically bringing him to the ground. "_No_!"

"Liberty, what the hell, girl?" He asked, trying to right himself. "What's wrong with you?"

I wrapped myself, leech like, around him. "You're not going _anywhere_!" I said. "I've already lost Skyla and now, Daddy. I won't lose you, too, Uncky! _I won't_!"

He was embarrassed, I could tell, at my outburst, but I didn't care. I was not letting him go. I clutched him tighter. "Please." I whispered.

"Baby, I got to." He said. "I can't just let your Daddy sit up there, chained up like a damn animal. Not when there's a chance he could still be alive."

"Rick will show you." Lori said from the doorway and Uncle Daryl and I both looked at her and then at Rick.

"I'm going back." He said and I felt the resolve I had to keep my uncle from going anywhere crumble. If Rick was going, he would go.

And that was that. All the talking, bargaining, pleading in the world wouldn't stop him. I tried screaming; crying, throwing an absolute hissy fit…it didn't work.

"Look at me, Liberty Belle." He said, finally fed up with my behavior. "That's your blood up there and we don't leave blood behind, not ever. You understand me?"

I nodded and wiped my nose on my shirt.

"Good, now you knock this shit off." He touched my hair. "I'll be just fine."

I sat with him as he cleaned his arrows, not letting him out of my sight, even for a second.

"I'll be fine." He told me. "You'll see. And I'm gonna bring your Daddy back." I clung to him and he sighed. "Baby girl, _don't_ do this to me."

"If something happens to you, who's gonna take care of me?" I asked him.

"Ain't nothin' gonna happen to me." He said. "You can count on that."

"I've heard that before." I muttered.

"Libby, don't you want me to bring your Daddy back?" He asked.

I looked up at him. "Not if it means losing you. Uncky…I love my Daddy, but _you_ were the one who was always there. You're the one who took care of me and made sure I had food to eat and new shoes. I don't know why you did, I wasn't your responsibility." He looked away. "But you did. And now, when the rubber hits the road, you're the one I want with me. Please, please…don't go."

"I have to." He said. "But I promise you I'll come back." He lifted my chin and looked me in the eyes. "And I always keep my promises, don't I?"

* * *

I cried when they left. I cried a lot. Lori and Amy hugged me, but it didn't help. I was sad and I was scared and I was angry. I was angry at Rick for handcuffing my Dad and at T-Dog for dropping the key, but that had dulled some since they were going to get him. Mostly, though, I was angry at Daddy. Why couldn't he act like everyone else? Why'd he have to show his ass and make people dislike him? Why couldn't he be like Uncle Daryl? Part of me felt like Andrea was right; it was his own fault they left him up there.

"I gotta ask you something." Amy said to me. I had decided to help finish up the laundry. They told me I didn't have to, but I needed to keep my mind busy.

"What's that?"

"Do you like your uncle better than your Dad?"

"Amy!" Andrea scolded, but she looked curious too. They all did. I shrugged my shoulders.

"My Uncle Daryl has always taken care of me." I said finally. "I don't know what I'd do without him."

And I left it at that.

"I do miss my Maytag." Carol said. I smiled and leaned forward, scrubbing a shirt I recognized as one of Carl's, as hard as I could.

"I miss my Benz." Andrea said. "And my Sat Nav."

"I miss my coffee maker." Jacqui, a black woman I didn't know well, said. "With its duel-drip filter and built in grinder…"

"My computer." Amy said. "And texting."

I sighed. "I miss my TV shows. Does Ted Mosby ever meet the mother? Do Sheldon and Amy ever have sex?" I sighed again. "Now I'll never know. And I'll never get to nominate my uncle for What Not to Wear…"

"I miss my vibrator." Andrea said and I giggled in spite of myself, laughing along with the other women.

"Me too." Carol said, causing more laughter.

"What's so damn funny?" Carol's husband, Ed, who would sit at the top of the rise and watch us work, but not lift a finger to help, came over.

"Nothing, Ed." Andrea said. "Just swapping war stories."

He kept coming towards us and she looked over her shoulder at him. "Problem, Ed?"

"Nothin' that concerns you." He replied, taking a drag off of his cigarette. He looked at Carol. "You oughta be focusing' on your work. This ain't no damn comedy club."

Carol dropped her head and continued to wash. I did the same, hoping he'd go away and leave us be, but he didn't. Ed reminded me of a man who used to live next door to us, years ago. We could hear him in the night, beating his wife to a pulp, forcing himself on his teenage daughter. I'd get so scared; I'd end up in bed with Uncle Daryl. We called the cops on them, everyone in the trailer park did, and they'd come out and arrest him, but the next day his wife would go and bail him out of jail. I'd never been so glad in my life to see a family move away as I was when they moved.

As Ed continued to hang around, looking over our shoulders, I could feel Andrea stiffen beside me. Finally, she seemed like she'd had enough.

"Tell you what, Ed." She told him. "You don't like how your laundry is done, do it your damn self. Here." She tossed a soaking wet shirt at him. He caught it and flung it back in her face.

"Ain't my job." He said.

"Yeah? What is your job?" She asked.

"Andrea…" Amy warned under her breath.

"Is it to sit around on your ass, smoking cigarettes all day?"

"Well, it sure as hell ain't listening to some uppity, smart-mouthed bitch." He told her. "Tell you what." He looked at Carol. "Come on, let's go."

"I don't think she needs to go anywhere with you, Ed." Andrea said.

"And I don't think its any of your business." He replied. He looked at Carol again. "Come on, now."

"Carol, you don't have to go with him." Andrea said. Carol shook her head.

"Andrea, please." Her eyes were wide. "Please, it doesn't matter."

"Don't think I won't knock you on your ass." Ed said to Andrea. "Just 'cause you're some college educated cooze."

Andrea gaped at him. Hell, we all did. I felt my hand slide into Amy's. I was scared. Ed scared me and my Daddy or my uncle wasn't around to protect me now.

"You come on, now." Ed said to Carol. "Or you gonna regret it later."

"So she can show up with fresh bruises, Ed?" Jacqui said. "Yeah, we've all seen them."

He laughed, his gaze going from his wife to each one of us. When it landed on me, I held my head high and narrowed my eyes, trying not to show my fear. Men like that, though, they're like dogs in a sense. They smell fear and it attracts them.

"Stay out of it." He looked back at Carol. "Come on! This ain't y'all's business and you don't wanna keep proddin' the bull here, okay? I am done talkin'. Come on." He took Carol's arm roughly.

"No." Andrea said. "No. Carol, you don't have to go with him."

"You don't tell me what?" Ed spun and looked at her. "I tell you what!" He slapped her, hard, across the face.

Andrea and Jacqui both flew at him, reminding me of some enraged hens I'd once seen go at my Uncle Daryl when he was drunk. Everyone was screaming and shouting, and Shane came out of nowhere and grabbed Ed by the shirt, pulling him away from us, and then he was on him, hitting him in the face over and over.

It happened so quickly. I'd never seen anyone get beaten like that, not up close. I hope I never do again. I backed away from the scene and vomited quietly behind a rock. I wasn't worried for Ed, no he deserved it, it was just all the drama and worry mixed together that made me sick.

Amy found me when the commotion was over.

"You all right?" She asked. I nodded and took the water bottle she was offering. I sipped some, swished it around in my mouth, and spat it out.

"Yeah." I told her. "It's just the heat of the day that got to me."


	15. Chapter Fifteen

"You think they'll be back tonight?" I asked Sophia.

We were sitting in the shade of a large elm tree, making friendship bracelets out of her bead set. It was something I hadn't done in a long time. Hilary and I had had friendship bracelets, but we stopped wearing them in the fifth grade, when we decided they were babyish.

I wondered where Hilary was now, if she was safe or even alive. Then I pushed her from my mind. As much as I missed her, as much as I missed my old life, there was no use dwelling on it.

"Your uncle and the others, you mean?" Sophia asked, pulling me from my thoughts. I nodded. "Yeah, they'll probably be back tonight. Orange and green are really your favorite colors?"

I grinned as she held up the half made bracelet. It was braided with strands of neon orange and bright green yarn. "They really are." I held up hers, that I was braiding with the yellow and blue yarn, her favorite colors.

"After we get them braided, we can put the beads on them." She said and I nodded. We had decided to spell out each other's names. Sure, maybe it was childish and a little silly, but it gave us something to do and it kept us out of the sun.

I couldn't say as much for others. I glanced down, again, at the tree where Shane had tied Jim.

Jim was another person I didn't know well. His tent was near ours and he had made small talk once or twice with Uncle Daryl. He was always friendly to me, and said good morning, though. I hadn't wanted to admit it earlier, but he had freaked me out as well, up there digging on the ridge in the sun.

"How about we do a little school work?" I turned to see Lori, Carol, and Carl walking towards us, Carl looking extremely unhappy.

_"Mo-om_…" Sophia whined. "Its _summer_."

"Doesn't matter." Carol said. "Come on, now. You too, Liberty."

Sophia and I put our bracelets aside to finish later and got up. Carol handed me a page of math problems and I finished them so quickly, she blinked in surprise.

"These…are all correct." She said. "Liberty, what grade are you in?"

"I'm supposed to be going into the ninth, but I tested out at college level." I replied. Was I bragging? You better believe it. "The school board wanted to skip me ahead two grades, but Daddy and Uncle Daryl didn't want me to. They thought I'd be better off with kids my own in age. I was in AP, though."

"AP?" Lori asked.

"Advanced Placement." Carol answered. "I taught grade school before all of this."

"So any of the work we give you, you're just gonna fly right through it?" Lori asked and I shrugged.

"I don't mind, it gives me something to do." I said and so, she gave me another math worksheet.

We worked quietly for awhile until Shane came over to talk to Jim.

"I'm sorry I scared your boy." Jim said to Lori. "And your girl." He added to Carol. His eyes flitted to me. "And you, too. Sun just cooked my head is all."

I nodded my head and dropped my eyes. Truth was, he_ had_ freaked me out. I'd never seen anyone with sunstroke before. I remembered, for a moment, how hot it would get in the packing plant where Uncle Daryl had worked, and how the bosses made all of them drink kool-aid with salt mixed in it to keep them hydrated.

We worked for awhile longer and then Sophia and I finished our bracelets. She tied mine on my wrist and I did the same for her.

"You guys made those?" Shane asked, looking at them with interest.

"Yeah." We answered in unison and then giggled. He smiled.

"Pretty neat. Why don't you help Mr. Morales with the fire pits?"

So we did. Sophia and I, along with Luis and Eliza help him build them up with rocks, so we could have a bigger fire, but it wouldn't be seen.

I hadn't been to a fish fry since the previous summer and it made me sad. I thought back to the last one I'd been too. It was at a neighbor's house, Uncle Daryl, Daddy, Skyla, and I had gone. Half of the trailer park was there. I remembered the smell of the fish cooking, the music blaring on the radio. Skyla and Uncle Daryl had gotten thoroughly drunk and slow danced to an old Alabama song, something that still embarrassed him to this day if it was brought up. Daddy had brought his then girlfriend, Ericka. I had liked her a lot and was sad when they broke up. She taught me how to French braid my hair.

"Libby?" Carl waved his hand in front of my face. "You in there?"

"Hmm?" I said and then noticed people were looking at me. "Sorry! I was just remembering the last fish fry I went to, last summer." I sighed. "I wanna go home."

Lori reached out and stroked my hair. "Don't we all." She said.

"All right," Mr. Morales said. "Happier subject." He looked at Dale. "I gotta ask…that watch…"

Dale grinned. "What's wrong with my watch?" he asked.

"I see you, everyday, same time, winding that thing." Morales told him. "Like a village priest saying mass."

"I've wondered this myself." Jacqui laughed.

Dale was still grinning. "I'm missing the point." He said.

"Unless I've misread the signs, the world has ended." Jacqui said. "Or at least hit a speed bump for a while."

"But there's you." Mr. Morales chimed in. "Every day, winding that watch."

"Time." Dale nodded. "It's important to keep track, isn't it? The days, at least. Don't you think, Andrea? Back me up here."

Andrea chuckled.

"Well, I like what a father said to a son when he gave him a watch that had been handed down through generations. He said, I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire, which will fit you individual needs no better than it did mine or my father's before me; I give it to you no that you may remember time, but that you may forget it for a moment now and then, and not spend all your breath trying to conquer it."

Everyone was quiet for a minute while we reflected on this, then Amy broke the silence. "You are so weird."

Everyone laughed and Dale shook his head. "Not me, its Faulkner. William Faulkner. It could be my bad paraphrasing."

Amy stood and Andrea looked up at her. "Where are you going?"

"I have to pee." Amy rolled her eyes. "Jeez, try to be discreet around here."

"I have to go too." I said, standing.

We walked to the RV together.

"So," Amy said, looking over her shoulder. "I think Carl has a crush on you."

I shook my head. "We're friends." I replied, liking the way the words sounded on my tongue. How many times had I heard Skyla utter those exact words? _We're just friends_.

"He's always staring at you." She said. I shrugged.

"He's too young for me." I said, flipping my hair back. Amy grinned.

"He's twelve and you're thirteen."

"But I'm almost fourteen." I told her. "What about you?" I asked as we stepped up into the RV. "Any guys you're interested in?"

"Actually, I think your uncle is pretty hot." She said, grinning at me again.

I pretended to puke. "Gross."

She went in the bathroom and came right back out. "That was a fast pee." I said.

"No toilet paper." She sighed. "Let me go ask Dale where some is."

Those were the last words she spoke to me. She stepped out of the RV asking about the toilet paper and then she started screaming. And then everyone was screaming. I heard the snarls and growls and knew those things had found their way to our camp. I backed up slowly in the tiny bathroom and locked myself in. I heard gunshots and Shane yelling for everyone to make their way to the RV.

I heard more gunshots and then I could hear my uncle's voice, shouting.

"Liberty!"

I flew out of the RV bathroom and to the doorway. Most everyone was grouped there.

"She's here, Daryl!" Lori shouted. "At the RV!"

I stood on my tiptoes to see him and when I caught sight, I pushed my way through the small crowd, throwing myself at him. He caught me in his arms and held me there for a second.

"You're okay?" He asked and I nodded.

"You?" I looked up at him as he nodded his head.

"I'm fine, baby."

I hugged myself closer to him again. He smelled like dried sweat and blood, but under that, I could smell that old Uncky smell, cigarette smoke, wood shavings, and the slightest hint of the deodorant he wore.

"Daddy?" I asked and he shook his head.

"He's gone." He said and, as I buried my face back into his chest, I finally allowed myself to cry.


	16. Chapter Sixteen

We buried my father's hand last on sad day, just me and Uncle Daryl. He dug a small hole and dropped it in. I didn't even wanna look at it. We stood there together after he filled the hole in, hand in hand, both of us lost in thoughts and memories- good and bad.

I was remembering my fifth birthday, how Daddy and Uncle Daryl had bought me a bike to replace the tricycle I'd long outgrown, and how we'd spent the day in the road in front of our trailer, with the two of them taking turns teaching me to ride it. Three months later Daddy, high on something, had sold my bike for drug money. Uncle Daryl had been so angry. I eventually got another one…but it wasn't the same. But I'll never forget the feel of that day, on my little pink and white bicycle, with my Dad running behind me, holding the seat. How I kept going for a few feet after he let go, and then, when I toppled over and began to cry, he was right there, holding me, kissing my knees. He'd carried me in the house where Uncle Daryl had cleaned my scrapes and covered them with my special Barbie Band-Aids. And then it was back outside and right on the bike again, over and over until I could ride it without their help.

I gripped Uncle Daryl's hand tighter and he looked down at me. "Are we doing the right thing, Liberty?" He asked me. "Going to the CDC with the others, I mean?"

I nodded my head. "I think we are. And besides, there's safety in numbers."

He ran his hand through my tangled hair. "How'd you get to be so wise?"

"I learned it from my uncle." I told him.

When they had come back without my Dad the night before, and after all the things that had happened, I cried and cried. I screamed. I raged. I kicked things, I threw things. No one tried to stop me and it felt good. I was angry. I was angry at my Dad for not staying put, I was angry at God for allowing this to happen. And when I was done, when I had screamed and cried and raged myself out, Lori had taken me by the hand and led me to her tent, where she had cleaned my hands, scratched and bloody from my fit.

"Feel better?" Uncle Daryl had asked me when we came back and I nodded. I did feel better. There was still a hollow feeling in my chest though; that I knew would never be filled, not unless we found my Daddy by some miracle. But I knew things would be okay. They had to be.

We had worked through the night, all of us who were left, cleaning up. Andrea sat with Amy; she wouldn't let anyone come near her. And when Rick had tried, she'd pulled her gun on him. When Uncle Daryl tried to argue, Lori had shouted at him.

"What if that was your girl lying there, huh?" She'd spat. "What if it was Liberty? Would you just be able to shoot her and go on with your life?"

Uncle Daryl didn't answer, he just stalked off, but I could see by the look on his face that he was thinking of Skyla, of how we'd been surrounded when she was bit, and how we'd had to leave her where she fell. I didn't go after him; I knew he needed the time alone. I knew now that my uncle had been in love with Skyla for years, probably since they were children, and that he was grieving for her. It was why he had steered clear of Amy, I thought, because she acted so much like Skyla that it hurt to watch her antics sometimes.

Now though, we were preparing to leave. It was Rick's idea to go to the CDC, to see if we could find some help there. I thought it was a good idea. Uncle Daryl did too, I could tell.

The Morales family had decided to separate from us. They were going to Birmingham to find what family they had left there. I cried when Eliza and Mrs. Morales hugged me. I cried quietly in the front seat of the truck as we pulled away from the quarry.

"You've sure got the water works runnin' lately." Uncle Daryl said.

"What?" I looked at him.

"You've been crying a lot."

"A lot's happened." I said. "And besides, as a female, isn't it my job to be over emotional?"

He shrugged. "Don't have much experience with females." He said. "How about you turn on some music? It might cheer us up."

I nodded and dug through his CD collection. "You have more Lynyrd Skynyrd than should ever be allowed in one music collection. What happened to variety?"

"Skynyrd _is_ variety." He retorted. Another old argument.

"God, would it kill you to have some Smashing Pumpkins or Pearl Jam?" I asked, digging deeper. Uncle Daryl snorted. "Some music from _this_ century?"

I held up a Creedence Clearwater Revival CD. "Hmm…CCR isn't too bad." I popped it in and we rolled down the highway to the sound of John Fogerty's voice.

"_Hope you got your things together_

_Hope you're quite prepared to die_

_Looks like we're in for nasty weather_

_One eye is taken for an eye_

"_Don't go round tonight_

_Well, it's bound to take your life_

_There's a bad moon on the rise"_

I stared out the window as the music washed over both of us. There was a buzz of fear, fear of the unknown, in my stomach as I watched the landscape fly past. Neither I nor my uncle spoke, and the song played on.

_"There's a bad moon on the rise"_

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**Authors Note's: This might just be my favorite chapter yet! I know its short by my usual standards, but the song just seemed like the place to end it. Next one will be much longer, I promise.**


	17. Chapter Seventeen

**Authors Note's: On my last chapter, I got my very first mean review for this story. Apparently, I'm a "sucky writer, who should be burned to death for writing crap". To that I say: UH-HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH! Translation: "If you don't like my story, don't read it!" Now, for all my nice and faithful readers, here is nice long chapter. I love you all!**

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Air conditioning.

That was the first thing I noticed as we were led into the CDC. The place was nice and cold. Also, it was clean and we looked like a group of wild Indians or something, filthy as we were. I stayed glued to my uncle's side as the man who let us in spoke.

"Why are you here? What do you want?"

"A chance." Rick told him. I pressed closer to my uncle.

"That's asking an awful lot these days." The man said.

He looked at each of us as he came closer. With his short blond hair and blue eyes, he reminded me a little of my Daddy and I felt a pang of sadness, but pushed it away. Nope, we don't dwell on that stuff, I told myself. We surely don't.

"You all admit to a blood test." The man said. "That's the price of admission."

"We can do that." Rick told him. The man lowered his gun.

"You got stuff to bring in, you do it now." He said. "Once this door closes, it stays closed."

It was decided quickly that the men would get our things.

"Everything you need is in your orange Nike bag?" Uncle Daryl asked me and I nodded. "You sure?" He squinted at me and I nodded again.

"Yes, I'm sure." I told him. "My toothbrush, pajamas, clean clothes…everything."

And when they had everything we needed and were back inside, the man had the main entrance sealed. I watched as the heavy doors dropped.

He ushered all of us onto a large elevator.

"Doctors always go around packin' heat like that." Uncle Daryl asked. I stood beside him, trying not to breath. It had hit me how much our group really smelled once we were enclosed in such a tiny space.

"There were plenty left lying around." Dr. Jenner answered. "I familiarized myself. But you all look harmless enough. Except you," He looked at Carl, a twinkle in his eye. "I'll have to keep me eye on you."

How long we rode the elevator I don't know. I'm sure it was only a few minutes, but it felt like hours. When it opened, he led us down a long, white hallway.

"Are we under ground?" Carol asked.

"Are you claustrophobic?" Dr. Jenner answered her question with one of his own.

"A little." She admitted sheepishly.

"Well, try not to think about it." He said, leading us into a dark, circular room. "VI, bring up the lights in the big room." He said.

The lights flashed on, bright and harsh.

"Welcome to Zone Five." Dr. Jenner told us.

"Where is everybody?" Rick asked. "The other doctors, the staff?"

"I'm it." Dr. Jenner turned to look at us. "It's just me here."

"But what about the person you were speaking with?" Lori asked him. "Vi?"

"VI, say hello to our guests." He said in a loud voice. "Tell them…welcome."

"Hello, Guests." A computerized female voice said. "Welcome."

"So he spends all of his time talking to a computer?" I whispered to Uncle Daryl, but he shushed me.

"I'm all that's left." Dr. Jenner told us, almost apologetically. "I'm sorry."

He led through the big room and into another one. "Who wants to go first?" He asked when he had all the blood testing supplies ready. No one spoke.

"Don't everyone volunteer at once." Uncle Daryl muttered and I stood up.

"I will." I said, walking forward. "No big deal, right?"

Dr. Jenner smiled. "Right." He had me sit down. "What's you name?"

"Liberty Dixon." I answered as he tied that weird rubber band thingy around my arm. "But everyone just calls me Libby."

"All right, Libby." He held up the needle. "You ready?"

I nodded and turned my head, so I didn't have to watch it going into my vein. I sucked in my breath when I felt the stick, but tried not to move. It was over within the minute and he withdrew the needle and put a bandage over the little hole in my arm.

Andrea was the last to go. "I don't get the point." She said to him. "If we were infected, we'd all be running a fever."

"I've already broken every rule in the book by lettin you in here." Dr. Jenner told her. "Let me at least be thorough. All done."

When Andrea stood, she swayed a little.

"You okay?" Dr. Jenner asked, looking concerned.

"She hasn't eaten in days." Jacqui, who had gone to help Andrea, told him. "None of us have."

He looked at us all. "Well, why didn't you say anything? Come on."

And we all trooped back out after him, into the big room. He made us spaghetti, which had never been a favorite meal of mine, but I ate it like it was a gourmet meal. And when he brought the wine and whiskey out, the adults got even giddier.

"You know, in Italy," Dale said, pouring a glass and handing it to Lori. "Children have a little bit of wine with dinner. And in France."

"And when Carl is in Italy or France, he can too." Lori answered, grinning.

"Oh, what's it gonna hurt?" Rick told her. "Come on."

She shrugged and Dale laughed as he poured Carl a little. Everyone watched as Carl took a gulp and made a face. "Ew!" he said. "Yuck! It tastes nasty!"

I looked at my uncle as everyone laughed. He was drinking straight from the bottle. "Can I try a little bit?" I asked.

"Of wine?" He shrugged. "Sure."

"No, of that." I pointed to his bottle. "I want what you're drinking."

That got even more laughs and even Uncle Daryl smiled. "Baby, this is Johnny Walker. Its whiskey."

"So?" I asked. "You're drinking it like its water."

"Let her have a little, Daryl." Dale told him. "She can see why the Native American's called it _firewater_."

"All right." Uncle Daryl said. He poured a little into the bottom of my glass. "Don't say you wasn't warned."

"Please." I scoffed. I took a drink and nearly spit it over the table. "Oh my God, that is _disgusting_!"

And of course, they all laughed. Uncle Daryl took my glass and drained it in one drink.

"How can you do that?" I asked him. "It tastes like gasoline!"

He shrugged. "I've had lots of practice."

"Well, I think you kiddos need to stick to the sodapop, huh?" Shane said.

"Not you, Glenn." My uncle spoke up. Glenn looked up, grinning.

"What?"

"Keep drinkin', little man." Uncle Daryl told him. "I wanna see how red your face can get."

His face did turn red at that, and this time even I laughed. Rick clinked his glass and stood. "It seems to me we haven't thanked our host properly."

"He's more than just our host." T-Dog said, raising his glass.

There were many cries of hear, hear, and of course, my uncle with his drunken _booyah_, which he stole from Skyla so many years ago.

"So, when you gonna tell us what happened her, Doc?" Shane asked. "To all the other doctors who were supposed to be figuring out what happened…where are they?"

"We're supposed to be celebrating, Shane." Rick said.

"Yeah, way to douche it up." I added and that comment gained me smack on the back of the head from my uncle. "Ow!"

"Watch your mouth." He said. "And quit bein' disrespectful."

"Whoa, wait a second." Shane held up his hand, thankfully ignoring me. "This is why we're here, right? This was your move; you're supposed to find all the answers and instead, we found him." He jerked his thumb towards Dr. Jenner. "We found one man. Why?"

"Well," Dr. Jenner looked uncomfortable. "When things got bad, a lot people just left went off to be with their families. And when things got worse, when the military cordon got overrun, the rest bolted."

"Every last one?" Shane asked in a cocky tone.

"No." Dr. Jenner gave him a steely look. "Most couldn't face to walk out the door. They…opted out. There was a rash of suicides."

I looked down at my plate; I didn't feel so hungry anymore.

"That was a bad time." Dr. Jenner looked down at his food too.

"You didn't leave." Andrea said. "Why?"

"I just kept working." He answered. "Hoping to do some good."

Glenn got up, poured himself another shot of whiskey. He looked at Shane. "Dude, you are such a buzzkill, man." He said and then he downed it.

The rest of the meal was subdued. No one felt much like laughing now, I guess. After we were all done, Dr. Jenner led us down another hallway.

"Most of the facility is powered down." He told us. "Including housing, so you'll have to make do here. The couches are comfortable, but there are cots in storage if you like. There's also a rec room down the hall that the kids might enjoy." He turned to the three of us and bent down to our eye level. "Just don't plug in any of the video games, okay? Or anything that draws power." He stood back up and indicated to the adults. "Same applies. If you shower, go easy on the hot water."

He walked on then and Glenn turned, grinning at everyone. "Hot water?"

T-Dog shrugged and grinned. "That's what the man said."

Uncle Daryl and I settled quickly into our room. "You want me to go get you a cot?" He asked. "Or you can take the couch and I'll sleep on the floor."

"You're not sleeping on the floor." I said. I looked at him. He was drunk, very drunk. "You take a shower while I go get the cot, okay?"

He agreed and I walked down the hall to the last room, and knocked on the door. "Dr. Jenner?" He opened it.

"Can I help you?"

"Uh, yeah, could I get one of those cots?" I asked, giving him my most winning smile.

"Your Dad too drunk to get one?" He asked and I laughed, and then covered my mouth.

"Well…yeah. And he's not my Dad, he's my uncle."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Dr. Jenner helped me get on of the cots from a large closet. "You two look so much alike, I just assumed…"

I shrugged and smiled, thanking him. By the time I got back to the room, Uncle Daryl was done with his shower. He was lyin on the couch, shirtless in his old flannel pajama bottoms that Skyla had gotten him as a joke years ago. They had little pictures of Elmer Fudd all over them. His hair as wet and dripping onto the pillow.

"Showers all yours, kiddo." He said.

I tried to shower quickly, but the hot water felt so good. I shampooed my hair twice and then just stood there, letting the water run over me. When I was finished, I dressed in my own pajamas and walked back out into the main room, expecting my uncle to be asleep. He wasn't. He was sitting up on the couch. My cot was pulled up beside it, completely made.

"Did you do this?" I asked. He shook his head.

"Wasn't me." He said. "Must've been the housekeeping fairies."

"Housekeeping fairies." I repeated. "Oh, I'm so sure."

"Sit down, Liberty." He told me. "I need to talk to you."

I sat on the cot. "What's up?"

"This…" he trailed off and then started again. "This is hard for me, okay? Its something I been needin' to tell you for a long time, but I wanted to wait till you was older. But now…the worlds been shot to shit and I don't know what's gonna happen from one day to the next and I just think you're ready."

I smiled. He was so drunk. "Uncky, what're you talking about?"

"I'm not your uncle." He said. I looked at him.

"What are you saying?"

"And Merle ain't your Daddy." He went on like I had spoken.

"Then who is my Daddy?" I asked, not sure if this was a joke.

"I am." He looked me full in the eyes. "Liberty, _I'm_ your Daddy."

I felt like all the air had been sucked from the room. "What?"

"I'm…I'm your Daddy." He said again. "Me and your Mama, we…well, only a few times, but I knew." He touched my hair. "The minute you was born and I held you in my arms, I knew you was mine. Your Daddy…_Merle_…he wasn't there the night you was born. He'd gotten in a fight the night before and was sittin' in the county jail. I was in the room with your Mama, I cut your cord. And she was passed out from all the pain and the doctor cleaned you up and wrapped you in blanket and handed you to me. And I held you and I _knew_. I knew you were my baby."

"And you waited fourteen years to say something?" I asked faintly.

"Baby and I decided that would be for the best." He said. "Hell, I was barely eighteen; I couldn't take care of you. And I didn't love your Mama. What happened between her and I was a mistake…but one I'm glad I made, 'cause I got you."

"That's why you never left Deerwood?" I asked, all the pieces falling into place. "That's why you stayed in a place you hated…because of me?"

He nodded ad I caught sight of the two of us, sitting side by side, in a mirror across the room, and I knew too. All my life, people have thought he was my father, had been surprised when I'd say he was my uncle. Our hair was the same color, our noses, eyes and cheeks, all the same.

"Does my Daddy know?" I asked. "Or Merle…what do I even call him? What do I call_ you_?"

"I think we'd best stick with Daddy and Uncle Daryl." He said. "And no, he never knew. No one did, but me, Baby, and Skyla."

Something else clunked into place. "The night you guys drug Donny Freed into the woods, when you came home, Skyla asked when you was gonna tell me the truth! Is this what she was talkin' about?"

He nodded. "Yeah…I thought you were asleep."

I shrugged. "I was faking."

He smiled then and I leaned against him and looked up into his face.

"You're my Daddy…" I tested the word out.

"Yep." He said. "I sure am."


	18. Chapter Eighteen

**Authors Note's: This is seriously the LONGEST chapter I've ever written. Fifteen pages in word! Hope you all enjoy it!**

* * *

I woke up to the sound of my uncle snoring._ Loudly_. I could tell it was very early and I sighed and got up to pee. When I came back, I could see him, lying on his back, his arm flung off the side of the couch, mouth hanging open. You know, I read one time that at least once in your life, a spider crawls in your mouth while you're sleeping. I climbed back on my cot and slid into the warm blankets. I reached out for my uncle's hand and in his sleep; he wound his fingers around mind.

"Skyla…" He murmured and I smiled sadly to myself.

When I awoke again, it was much later and he was already awake.

"Hey, kiddo." He said. "How'd you sleep?"

"All right." I answered. "You?"

He smiled. "Like a rock. A very drunk rock." He rubbed his head. "I'm paying for it this morning, though."

I nodded, chewed my lip. "Uncky, we need to talk about what you said last night."

He frowned. "What did I say last night?"

I wiped the sleep from my eyes. "You…you don't remember?"

He shook his head. "_No_…"

I felt my heart leap. Maybe he was just drunk last night; maybe he had made it up.

"You…you told me you were my Dad." I said and when his face paled, I knew he had been telling the truth. "You said that you…you were with my Mama and that you were my real father. Is that true?"

He sighed and dropped his eyes. "Yeah. Yeah, it's true. I don't know what came over me to tell you, but it's true. You're...you're mine."

I lay back on the cot, the thought of it still as staggering as it was the night before. "Were you attracted to my Mama?" I asked him finally and he nodded.

"Yeah." He admitted. "Baby was beautiful and she…you don't remember this probably, but she was just so…" he trailed off, unable to find the words. "She loved your Daddy, but he…they had a lot of problems. The first time we were together, she came to me. They'd had a fight and I think it was her way of getting back at him."

"Why'd you do it?" I asked. He shrugged.

"I was seventeen and had only been with one girl. When a beautiful woman comes at you like that, ready to go, its hard for a kid to say no." He shook his head. "Why am I even telling you this?"

"Because I have a right to know." I answered. "Was I made...the first time?"

He shook his head. "The second time. I went to her. It was…not real bright on my part, but I was going through some stuff, I'd been drinking and it just happened. She came to me a month later, told me she was pregnant and that it could be mine, but she didn't know. She'd been with Merle that night too."

"So there's still a chance…I could be his?" I asked. He shrugged.

"I guess, but I mean, I don't think so. Look at us." He indicated in the mirror. "You're mine, Libby. We both know that."

I sighed and nodded. Deep down I'd always known he was more than my uncle. "Can I still call you Uncle Daryl?" I asked. "Or would you prefer Daddy Dixon?"

He looked at me, saw I was joking and cuffed me gently on the arm. "Knock it off and go get dressed. Let's find something to eat."

I looked him. "Uncky…everything's changed now, hasn't it?" He looked up at me, but didn't really answer.

* * *

After we were both dressed, we made our way into the room where we'd eaten the night before. T-Dog had made eggs and everyone was eating.

"Are you hung over too?" Carl asked Uncle Daryl. He nodded.

"I am."

"He snored like a freight train last night." I told everyone. "Woke me up."

"I did not." He scoffed. I nodded.

"Uh-huh, yes you did." I said. "You was laying there with your mouth open. Probably a spider crawled in. I've read that can happen."

"Oh yeah?" He asked. "Well, I've read that nieces that pick on their hungover uncles sometimes disappear."

I rolled my eyes. "What're you gonna do, kill me? Make me swim with the fishes?"

"Eat your food." He said.

We hadn't been eating for more than a few minutes when Dr. Jenner came in.

"Morning." He said.

"Doctor, I don't mean to slam you with questions first thing." Dale began.

"But you will anyway." Jenner said.

"We didn't come here for the eggs." Andrea told him and he sighed.

"You wanna see?" He said to us, looking at everyone. I forked more eggs in my mouth and didn't say anything. I felt Sophia's hand under the table, groping for mine and I grasped it.

"If you all want to see so bad, come on and I'll show you." There was a challenge to Dr. Jenner's voice.

"The children should stay here…" Carol bean, but he cut her off.

"No, they need to see this too."

And so, we followed him back into the big room.

"Give me a playback of TS-19." He said.

"Playback of TS-19." VI repeated.

There was a lot of loud beeps as we all crowded around to see what he was about to show us.

"Few people ever got a chance to see this." He said. "Very few."

We watched the monitors, the picture of the human skull on it.

"Is that a brain?" Carl asked.

"An extraordinary one." Dr. Jenner answered. "Not that it matters in the end." He looked back at the monitor. "Take us in for E.I.V."

"Enhanced internal view." The computerized voice said.

We all watched silently as the picture took us inside the brain. I found my hand grasping at my uncle's shirt. He put his hand on my arm.

"What're those lights?" Shane asked.

"It's a person's life." Dr. Jenner replied. "Experiences, memories…everything. Somewhere in all that organic wiring, all those ripples of light, is you. The thing that makes you unique and human."

Uncle Daryl crossed his arms. "Don't you ever make sense?"

"Those are synapses." Dr. Jenner explained. "The electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages. They determine everything a person says, does, or thinks from the moment of birth to the moment of death."

"Death?" Rick asked, coming forward. "Is that what this is? A vigil?"

"Yes." Dr. Jenner replied. "Or rather, the playback of a vigil."

Andrea was walking forward too, closer to the screen. "This person died?" She asked. "Who?"

"Test Subject 19." He said. "Someone who was bitten and infected and volunteered to have us record the process." He paused. "VI, scan forward to the first event."

"Scanning to first event." VI said.

I watched in silent horror as the little lights in the brain started to go out, replaced by an ugly blackness.

"What is that?" Glenn asked.

"It invades the brain like meningitis." Dr. Jenner told us. "The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown mode, then the major organs. And then death." He paused again. "Everything you were or ever will be…gone."

"Is that what happened to Jim?" Sophia asked Carol.

I blinked my eyes hard and looked away. I knew this; how the brain worked. I'd learned about it last year in AP Human Science.

"Yes." Carol answered Sophia. She wrapped her arms around her.

Andrea was crying, and Dr. Jenner looked back at her.

"She lost somebody two days ago." Lori explained. "Her little sister."

"I lost someone too." Dr. Jenner told her. "I know how devastating it can be." He looked up at the screen again. "Scan to the second event."

"Scanning to second event."

I looked up at my uncle, he was staring at the blackness on the screen and I knew we were thinking the same thing. Was this what had happened to Skyla? Had she turned? Or had they simply eaten her? I shuddered; I didn't want to think of either. I wanted to remember Skyla the way I had known her, beautiful and funny and full of life. Not as some rotting corpse.

"The resurrection times vary wildly." Dr. Jenner continued. "We had reports of it happening in as little as three minutes."

I remembered that first day, when I'd seen Ashley attack Kaylee and I thought the baby was dead…but she just got back up almost immediately.

"The longest we heard of was eight hours." Dr. Jenner was saying. "In the case of this patient, it was two hours, one minute, seven seconds."

I moved out from behind my uncle and closer to the large screen as little red lights in the brain stem began to light up.

"It restarts the brain?" Lori asked, her voice shocked.

"No, just the brain stem." Dr. Jenner told her. "Basically, it gets them up and moving."

"But they're not alive." Rick asked, but it was really more of a statement than a question, I thought.

"You tell me." Dr. Jenner indicated to the screen.

"Its nothing like before." Rick said, shaking his head. "Most of that brain is dark."

"Dark, lifeless, dead." Dr. Jenner nodded. 'The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part, that doesn't come back. The you part."

"So…the body is like a shell?" I asked, looking at him. He nodded again.

"Just a shell." He confirmed. "Driven by mindless instinct."

A bright light shot across the screen then, so fast it startled me and I jumped a little. I felt Uncle Daryl's hand on my back, steadying me.

"Oh my God," Carol said. "What was that?"

"He shot his patient in the head." Andrea answered.

I looked around at my uncle for confirmation and he nodded. I felt slightly sick.

"You…you shot that person?" My voice wobbled slightly.

"VI, power down the main screen and the work stations." Dr. Jenner said instead of answering my question.

"Powering down main screen and work stations."

"You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea asked.

Dr. Jenner looked uncomfortable. "It could be microbial. Or viral…parasitic…fungal."

"Or the wrath of God." Jacqui said.

"Sodom and Gomorrah." I told her and she nodded.

"What?" Uncle Daryl looked at me. "What the hell does that mean?"

"In the Bible, when God felt that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were getting too evil, he destroyed them." I answered. "He rained fire down till there was nothing left."

"Well, there is that." Dr. Jenner commented.

Andrea shook her head. "Somebody must know something." She said. "Somebody somewhere."

"There are other facilities, right?" Carol asked.

"There may be some." Dr. Jenner said. "With people like me."

"But you don't know?" Rick asked. "How can you not know?"

"Everything went down." Jenner explained simply, like he was speaking to a small child. "Communications, directives, all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month."

"So it's not just here?" Andrea asked. "There's nothing left anywhere? Nothing? That's what you're really saying, right?"

He didn't answer her, but he didn't have to. Everyone could see it on his face.

"Man, I wanna get shitfaced drunk." Uncle Daryl said. He was pacing behind me like a caged animal. "Again."

"Dr. Jenner, I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question," Dale said. "But, that clock, it's counting down. What happens at zero?"

"The basement generators run out of fuel." He answered.

"And then?" Rick asked. Dr. Jenner didn't answer, he just walked away. "VI," Rick looked around. "What happens when the power runs out?"

"When the power runs out, facility-wide decontamination will occur." VI said in her smooth voice.

"Well, what the hell does that mean?" Uncle Daryl asked. Rick shook his head.

"I don't know, but I don't like the sound of it." He answered.

I took my uncle's arm. "Can we go back to our room?" I asked. He nodded.

"Yeah, baby." He said. "Come on."

We went back down the hallway to our little room.

"I want you to get your things together." Uncle Daryl told me. "I don't like the way that Jenner guy was acting and I want you to be ready in case we gotta roll outta here real quick."

I nodded. "All right, Uncky." I told him. He kissed the top of my head.

"You're a good girl." He told me. "Better than I could've ever asked for. You ain't mad at me now, are you?"

I shook my head. I wasn't mad, not really. I was shocked and hurt that he had hidden this from me. And I felt guilty. If it wasn't for _me_, he could've left Deerwood as soon as he was old enough. But he stayed…to be with _me_. I felt like I was the chains that bound the prisoner to the wall. He could've gone anywhere, done anything, but instead he spent his life taking care of a child he couldn't claim. _Me_.

"I'm not mad." I said finally. "I'll get my things together."

I was putting the last of my clean clothes into my bag when the lights shut off. Uncle Daryl, who'd been packing his own bag, looked up.

"What the hell?" He asked. He walked to the door and opened it. I could see others in the hall too.

"What's going on?" He asked as Dr. Jenner passed. "Why'd everything shut off?"

"Energy use is being prioritized." Dr. Jenner answered, not even stopping.

"Air isn't a priority?" Someone asked. I thought it was Dale. "And lights?"

My uncle pulled me by the hand. I slung my bag over my shoulder and followed him out the door.

"Zone Five is shutting itself down." Dr. Jenner was saying.

"Hey!" Uncle Daryl was pulling me faster. His legs were longer than mine and I was jogging to keep up. "Hey! What the hell does that mean?"

Dr. Jenner didn't answer. Uncle Daryl caught up to him and pushed him hard on the shoulder.

"Hey, man, I'm talkin' to you! What do you mean it's shuttin' itself down? How can a building _do_ anything?"

"You'd be surprised." Dr. Jenner said.

"Jenner?" Rick, Shane, Glenn, and T-Dog came from the basement. "What's happening?"

"The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power." Dr. Jenner answered. "It's designed to keep the computers running to the last possible second. That starts as we approach the half hour mark."

He held out his whiskey bottle to Uncle Daryl, who snatched it out of his hand.

"It was the French." Dr. Jenner said to Andrea.

"What?" She asked.

"They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know. While our people were bolting out the doors and committing suicide in the hallways, they stayed in the labs till the end. They thought they were close to a solution."

"What happened?" Jacqui asked.

"The same thing that's happened here." Dr. Jenner said. "No power grid. Ran out of juice. The world runs on fossil fuel…how stupid is that?"

Shane started forward, but Rick stopped him. "Lori, get our things. Everyone, go grab your stuff. We're getting out of here _now_!"

Uncle Daryl and I had ours, but we began to follow everyone anyway. A loud alarm began to blare and I grabbed his waist.

"What is that?" I shouted over it. He shook his head.

"Thirty minutes to decontamination." VI said.

"Doc, what's goin' on here?" Uncle Daryl shouted. "You're scaring my girl!"

Dr. Jenner didn't answer. Shane shook his head.

"Y'all heard Rick!" He said loudly. "Get your stuff and come on! We're getting out of here!"

We made towards the doors, my uncle pulling me along yet again but they closed.

"Did you just lock us in?" Glenn asked. He looked around. "He just locked us in!"

It was pandemonium and I was scared. "You son of a bitch!" Uncle Daryl rushed at him. "You locked us in here!"

Shane grabbed him before he could get to the doctor, who looked at him calmly. "You should be spending this time with your girl, you know." He told my uncle. "She's your daughter, did you know that? I was curious when I did your blood tests last night and it came back a match. That girl isn't your niece, she's your child."

That took the wind out Uncle Daryl for a second and everyone else looked at either him or me.

"Um…long story?" I said.

Rick shook himself and headed forward. "Jenner, let us of out here now!"

"There's no point." Dr. Jenner said. "Everything topside is locked down. All the emergency exits are sealed."

"Well, open the damn things!" Uncle Daryl demanded.

"That's not something I control." Jenner told us. "The computers do."

I felt myself beginning to shake as the realization struck me. We could die here, I thought. I never even made it to fourteen. I never kissed a boy or saw the ocean or even rode on a rollercoaster. This was it. My last day. I looked down at my Ninja Turtles shirt and sighed. I wasn't even dressed well.

"Its better this way." Dr. Jenner told us.

"What is?" Rick asked. "What happens in twenty-eight minutes?"

He wasn't going to answer, but when Rick, Shane, and Uncle Daryl kind of surrounded him, he snapped a little.

"Do you know what this place is?" He shouted. "We protected the public from very nasty stuff! Weaponized smallpox! Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country!"

I was so scared I was afraid I was going to pee on myself. I felt an arm on me and I jumped, looking up to see Carol. She had wrapped Sophia in her embrace and now she had me too.

"H.I.T.s are employed to keep any organism from getting out." Dr. Jenner said finally.

"H.I.T.s?" Rick asked.

"VI, define."

"H. " VI began. "High-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosives consist of a two stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other known explosive except nuclear. The vacuum-pressure effect ignites the oxygen between 5,000 and 6,000 degrees and is useful when the greatest loss of life and damage to structure is desired."

"It sets the air on fire." Jenner said.

I wrenched myself from Carol's grasp and staggered to my uncle. He wrapped his arms around me. "Daddy…" I whispered to him. He jerked his head back in surprise. "I don't wanna die."

"I know, baby." He said. He handed me back to Carol and I cried on her as he began to throw things at the door. "Open the damn door!" He shouted.

Carol held me and Sophia as the men tried to break the door down. I can honestly say, looking back now, that that's the most terrified I've ever been in my life. Jenner was trying to talk to us, trying to tell us how this would be better. He even used Amy as an example. I didn't listen. I knew one thing for certain. I didn't want to die.

"I can't make a dent." Shane had come back over.

"Those doors are designed to withhold a rocket launcher." Dr. Jenner said.

"Yeah, well, your head ain't!" Uncle Daryl shouted, running up the little ramp with his axe. I dropped my head again. I didn't want to see this.

They stopped him, Dale and someone else who I didn't see. I buried my head in Carol's lap.

"There is no hope." Dr. Jenner told us.

"There's always hope!" Rick said. "Maybe it won't be you, maybe not here, but somebody somewhere-."

"What part of everything is gone do you not understand?" Andrea asked him. She was curled up in a ball on the floor, not too far from where we sat.

"Listen to your friend," Jenner said. "She gets it. This is what takes us down. This is our extinction event."

"This isn't right!" Carol told him. "You can't just keep us here! These kids don't deserve to die like this!"

She stood up and pulled us up with her. My Uncle came to me then, he put his arms around me and led me aside. We stood there together and he was murmuring into my hair, like he used to do when I was little. I looked up at him and realized he was humming that old song he used to sing to me, Yankee Doodle.

"Wouldn't it be kinder?" Jenner asked. "More compassionate to just hold your loved ones and wait for it to be over?" He looked at me and Uncle Daryl.

I don't know exactly what happened then. I was lost in my own little world, remembering all of our good times. Uncle Daryl put his mouth close to my ear.

"She's my Yankee Doodle Sweetheart," He sang in his toneless voice. "Born on the Fourth of July…"

I heard a commotion and we both turned to look. Shane was holding Jenner at gunpoint, demanding he open the doors. When he didn't Shane began to shoot things. I hid my face back in my uncle's shirt and he touched my hair.

"I think you're lying." Rick told Jenner. "I think you're lying about there being no hope. If there was no hope, you'd have bolted with the rest. You stayed. Why?"

"It doesn't matter." Jenner said.

"It does matter." Rick told him. "It always matters. You stayed when others ran. Why?"

"Not because I wanted to." Jenner told him. "I made a promise to her." He pointed to the screen. "My wife."

"Test subject nineteen was your wife?" Lori asked him.

"She begged me to keep going as long as I could. How could I say no?"

My uncle kissed my head and left me again, back to beating on the door. I wrapped my arms around myself, tried to console myself with the thought that we'd be back with Skyla soon, and I could meet Grandma Dixon…

There was a loud beeping and the doors opened. My Uncle rushed back and grabbed me. Forget my hand, he threw me over his shoulder and was literally carrying me. "Come on!"

"I can walk myself!" I shouted at him, but he didn't let me down till we got to the main room.

When we got there, I realized Jacqui, Andrea and Dale weren't with us. "Where's…where's…" I couldn't get it out.

"They stayed." Carl told me. The men were trying to break the glass and we were in the same situation we were in before.

"The glass won't break?" Sophia asked.

"Rick," Carol came forward. "I have something that might help."

"No offense, Carol," Shane said. "But I don't think a nail file is gonna do it."

"Your first morning at camp," She said ignoring Shane. "When I washed your uniform, I found this." She held something out and squinting at it I realized it was a grenade.

"Look out!"

Uncle Daryl lunged at me and held me to the ground, laying his body over mine, and when the explosion happened, it rattled my teeth. But it was nothing compared to what was coming. My uncle had me by the hand and was dragging me out of the window. My only thought was that at least he wasn't carrying me this time.

When we got to the truck, we hustled inside and hunkered down, preparing for the next explosion. When it happened it blasted so loud, my ears were ringing. I was still shaking life a leaf and he was trying to comfort me somewhat.

"Its all right." He was telling me. "We're safe now. We got out of there in time."

"I know." I said. "But what about everyone else? Andrea and Dale and Jacqui?"

He shook his head. "Can't be worried about everyone else." He said. "And look here." He pointed and I followed his gaze to see Dale and Andrea climbing into the RV.


	19. Chapter Nineteen

**Authors Note's: Here we are, back again. This chapter isn't as long as the last, but its a good size. In this chapter, I'm going to slowly start making the transition from Uncle Daryl to Dad Daryl in Libby's mind. Also, I'm kind of toying with an idea for a Boondock Saints story, if anyone would be interested in it. Just a thought right now, but if I put it up, I'll let you all know!**

* * *

We were leaving the truck behind, also T-Dog's church bus and Shane's jeep. They were all so horrible on gas and besides, Uncky and I had the bike, which we were going to ride.

"I have a question," Dale began hesitantly to Uncle Daryl. "Its irrelevant, but everyone is wondering about it."

"What?" Uncle Daryl asked, looking around.

"What Dr. Jenner said back there about Liberty being your daughter, not your niece…you knew?"

My uncle sighed and looked over at me. I shrugged. We'd both been expecting this conversation ever since the doctor had let the cat out of the bag.

"Yeah," he said finally. "I knew. And I just told Liberty the other night. Her Mama and I…well, it didn't mean anything and Merle never knew. He thought Libby was his and since I wasn't eager to have my face rearranged, I let him think that."

"Well, Merle isn't here anymore." Dale said. "And now she knows…why is she still calling you uncle?"

"It's hard." I said, standing up. "He's always been Uncle Daryl to me and Merle was Daddy. I can't just reverse their roles in my mind over night."

After that, everyone left it alone, but I still felt weird and so did Uncle Daryl.

"Feel like I'm on a damn episode of Jerry Springer." He muttered.

"_Jerry! Jerry_!" I chanted, tryin to get a smile out of him. "Oh, come on. Since when do you care what anyone thinks of you?"

"I don't." He said. "It just…it feels weird."

"I get to ride on the bike with you, right?" I asked. He nodded and I felt my heart leap. I hardly ever got to ride on the bike. Everyone was afraid I'd get hurt. Like I was a freakin' baby or something.

"But you need to put some jeans on." He told me, looking at my bare legs in their shorts. "This muffler gets awful hot; it could burn your leg."

"All right." I said. I stepped inside the RV. "Can I use your bathroom?" I asked Dale. "I need to put some jeans on."

"Go ahead." He told me. "And Libby…I didn't mean any offense earlier."

I waved my hand. "Don't worry about it. It's a weird situation, I know."

"I bet." He looked closely at me. "Are you all right? I mean…to have found out such shocking news after so many years…"

I shrugged. "Eh. My Mama's been gone for ten years and my Daddy…he wasn't exactly father of the year. Uncle Daryl's always been my constant, so no, it's not that different."

Dale touched my braid. "You're a smart kid."

I grinned. "That's what they tell me."

I changed out of my shorts and into my blue jeans quickly and traded my flip-flops for a pair of sneakers.

"Better?" I asked Uncle Daryl, who was waiting out by the bike.

"Much." He answered. I climbed on the bike and he got on in front of me.

"Hey," Rick said coming over to us. "If you get tired of riding the bike, Libby, we have room."

I smiled. "Okay, thanks, but I think I'll be all right for awhile."

Uncle Daryl looked up at him. "If she gets to squimin' around, we'll trade." He said. I scowled.

"I do not squirm."

He snorted and I sighed. Oh well. At least I was getting to ride on the bike.

I clutched my arms around his waist and laid my head against his back as we took off. I closed my eyes and let my mind drift. This was the perfect time to think things through.

What Dale had said struck a chord. Even though Uncle Daryl had been Uncle Daryl my entire life, now I knew the truth. Should I call him Dad? Would he mind? How would I even approach the subject? Was it disrespect to the memory of my father…who really wasn't my father anyway?

I leaned forward, near his ear. "Can I ask you something?"

"What?" He called back over the roar of the air blowing around us.

"What would you think if I wanted to call you Dad?"

He blinked, glanced back at me and then back at the road. "I don't know. Do you want to call me Dad?"

I shrugged. "Kind of."

"How about we give it a trial period?" He suggested. "See if we can get used to it."

"Okay…Dad." I said and his face flushed a little. No matter what he said, I think he liked it.

We rode for a long time, down country roads and highways, until we finally came to another interstate. Rick had been right; riding on the back of a motorcycle wasn't the most comfortable thing, but I refused to squirm around even though my butt and upper legs were killing me.

When my uncle…er, _Dad_, began to slow the bike down, I looked over his shoulder, slightly in awe. I'd never seen a traffic snarl like this. It was like…Carmageddon.

We drove ahead a little ways and then turned around and went back, pulling up beside the RV.

"Can you find a way through?" Dale asked and Uncle Daryl…_Dad_, dammit this is hard, nodded. So we turned back around and began to wind our way through the mess.

At first it was kind of cool, but then I realized that there were dead people in the cars and I sucked my breath in.

"What?" Dad (Haha! I did it!) asked me. "What is it?"

"There's_ dead people_ in there." I told him.

"Just…don't look at 'em, okay?" He said.

"Okay…Dad." I said again and again, he flushed a little bit. I put my face against his vest and breathed in deeply, remembering what Skyla used to tell me. It wasn't the dead people you had to worry about, it was the living. Only that wasn't so true anymore, was it?

I about jumped a mile off the seat though, when I heard a loud pop from behind us. It was the RV's radiator hose…again.

Dale was cursing. "I said it. Didn't I say it? Dead in the water!"

"Problem Dale?" Shane asked. He winked at me and I couldn't help but grin back.

"Just that we're stuck in the middle of nowhere, with no hope of finding a hose…" He trailed off as everyone kind of smirked at him. My Dad (it gets easier every time I say it) was already digging through an open car trunk. "Okay, that was stupid."

"If you can't find a radiator hose here…" Sane said.

"There's a bunch of stuff we can find." My Dad said, continuing to dig. I joined him, opening a dufflebag. I pulled out a shirt and after, reading the saying on the front, burst out laughing.

"I'm keeping this!" I said, holding it up to myself. Dad read it and shook his head.

"I don't think so." He told me. "You're not wearing that."

I danced out of his reach with it. "Watch me."

The shirt said '_Did I just walk into a garden? Cuz all I see are hoes_.'

I held it up for the others to see and Glenn laughed. "I like that." He said.

"I can siphon more fuels from these cars." T-Dog said, getting everyone back on track.

"Maybe we can find some water." Carol said. "Or food."

"This is a graveyard." Lori told us. Everyone turned to look at her. Dad and I stopped our pilfering for a second. "I don't know how I feel about this."

It gave everyone a bit of a pause, but no one stopped what they were preparing to do. I went back to digging through the clothes. There wasn't much else in this car, so I moved onto the next one. Sophia came up to help me. And that's when we hit a jackpot.

"_Oh my God_." Sophia breathed as we opened the black leather case.

"_It's the holy grail_…" I whispered.

Dad and T-Dog, thinking we had found something of use to them, came to look.

"What the hell?" Dad asked. "Its just makeup!"

"_Just makeup_?" Sophia and I repeated in unison.

"This is an entire MAC collection!" I told them.

"Do you know how much this worth?" Sophia asked.

They both sort of backed away then, looking at us like we were insane as we hustled the huge makeup kit out.

"And you're not even allowed to wear makeup!" Dad reminded me. I looked at him.

"The world has ended. I thought that rule no longer applied." I went back to the case. "Look at this lipstick! It's like brand new!"

We spent a few minutes poking through it before we carried it and put in the back of Carol's jeep. Then we went back to looking. I found a pair of neon orange Converse in my size, so that was pretty neat.

"Look at this straightener." Sophia held it out.

"Supposed to be getting actual supplies," Shane told us. "Not beauty supplies."

"A girl has to have her priorities." I told him as Sophia pocketed the straightener. He laughed.

"I guess she does." He said. "But how about y'all catch up to Carl and help him?"

We passed a car with a dead woman in it and I felt my stomach turn a little.

"Kids, don't look." Carol told us. She and Lori stopped to look through some things and we walked on.

"Carl," Lori said. "Always in my sight."

"You too, Sophia and Libby." Carol said to us. I nodded.

We found more cool things as we dug through the cars. I found an awesome Nirvana t-shirt.

"Check this out!" I held it up. "Cool, huh?"

"You like Nirvana?" Carl asked. I nodded.

"Yeah, they're like my favorite band." I said. "My uncle…Dad…uh…"

"We know who you mean." Sophia smiled. "Daryl."

"Yeah, him, he saw them in concert once." I said. "With Skyla."

"He doesn't seem like he'd like that kind of music." Carl said and I shook my head.

"He doesn't…but Skyla wanted to go and he'd have followed her to the ends of the Earth."

Sophia sighed. "That's so romantic." She said.

I'd never really thought of him as being so, but I guess carrying a torch for the same girl for nearly thirty years is pretty romantic.

We were digging through an old Ford when Rick came out of nowhere, hissing for us to get down, under the cars. Carl and I crawled under one and Sophia hurried to the one across from us.

I could hear the walkers as they passed and see their feet, but I was too scared to move. All I could think of was my Dad up ahead, unaware. What if one of those things got him? I whimpered slightly and Carl put his dirty hand in mine. I squeezed his fingers and he squeezed back.

"Shh." He whispered. "It's okay."

"My Dad…" I whispered back.

"He'll be fine." He breathed in my ear. "We have to be quiet now."

We lay there together, as silent as we could be. I looked at Rick; he was nodding at us, telling us we were doing good. After what seemed like an eternity, the walkers had passed. I made to crawl out, but Carl grabbed the tail of my shirt and pointed. Two stragglers were going past. Sophia hadn't seen them and had started to climb out. When they spotted her, they went straight for her.

My heart was in my throat. She was my friend…what if they got her like they got Amy? I could lose another friend. I felt tears ooze down my cheeks as she ran away from them, into the woods. Rick was out from under his car like a shot, following them.

We all crawled out then and rushed to the guard rail.

"Lori," Carol half-sobbed. "There's two walkers after my baby!"


	20. Chapter Twenty

**Authors Note's: I'm sorry this took so long to be updated! I've started a Boondock Saints fic and I've been working on it too! But this one will NOT go unfinished! Don't worry, I won't leave you all hanging!**

* * *

Rick came back without Sophia.

"I gave her a hiding spot." He told us. "And I told her to wait for me."

Carol began to really cry then, hard, loud sobs. I sunk back against Dad, who wrapped his arms around me.

"You okay?" He asked. I nodded mutely.

"You're gonna help find her?" I asked him. He looked down at me and squinted against the bright sun.

"Yeah." He said and kissed the top of my head. "We're gonna find her." He said loudly. "I practically grew up in the woods, and I can track damn near anything. We'll find her."

Carol looked up at him then, her eyes as big as olives. "Please, Daryl…" She said and he started at the sound of her saying his name. "Please bring my baby back."

He nodded and gave me a quick, one-armed hugged. He and Rick got a group together quickly consisting of the two of them, Glenn and Shane. Dale and T-Dog were staying behind to fix the RV so we could leave as soon as they came back with Sophia.

"I wanna go help look." Carl said loudly.

"Me too." I put in.

"_No_!" Rick, Lori, and my Dad all said at the same time. They all looked at one another.

"Sophia is our friend." Carl said. I nodded.

"Yeah! Why can't we help?"

Dad shook his head. "You're not getting_ near_ those woods." He said, his voice low and scary. "You're staying right here where Lori can see you at all times, you hear me?"

"Yeah." I muttered. He cupped his hand around his ear.

"What was that? I couldn't hear you, Liberty Belle."

"Yes, sir, I heard you." I said loudly.

I stomped back over towards the RV and Carl joined me a few seconds later. Apparently, he had been told the same thing I was. We sat on the steps of the RV together, sulking.

"Can't believe they won't let us help…"

"Act like were freakin' babies or something…"

We probably sat there for twenty minutes or so, acting like the babies they were treating us like, when Andrea came over and asked us to help her look through more cars. It was something to do, so we did.

And that's what we were doing when Shane and Glenn came out of the woods to tell us that Dad had found Sophia's trail and he and Rick were close on it.

Shane got everyone back in the swing of things, moving cars off the road. Even Carl and I were able to help.

An hour and a half later, I was taking a break, drinking some water and eating some animal crackers, when Carol came over to Dale, near where I was sitting.

"Why aren't we all out there looking?" She asked him. "Why are we here, moving cars?"

"Well, we have to clear enough room so that I can get the RV turned around as soon as it's running." Dale told her. "Now that we have enough gas so we can double back to the bypass that Glenn flagged on the map."

"Going back is gonna be easier than trying to get through this mess." Shane agreed, walking up.

"Well, we're not going anywhere till my daughter gets back." Carol said. Lori touched her arm.

"Hey, that goes without saying." She told her. Shane nodded.

"Rick and Daryl are on it." He told her. Carol nodded and walked back over to the guardrail. Carl and I followed her.

"It'll be okay, Carol." I told her. "My Dad, he really can track anything. Sometimes, when my Daddy…erm…Merle, would get fired and Dad wasn't able to bring enough money home to pay bills and feed us, he'd going hunting in the woods and bring us back all kinds of food to eat. He's real good, I promise."

She smiled sadly at me and touched my hair. "He must be, to have raised a girl like you. You and Sophia have gotten pretty close, huh?"

I nodded. "Yeah, Sophia and I found a whole bunch of awesome makeup in one of the cars." I told her. "We're gonna play around with it; its gonna be so much fun. Oh, and we found a hair straightener too. Add that with the clothes we've found, we're gonna get all dolled up and put on a fashion show!"

Carl rolled his eyes. "Oh God." He said. I pushed him on the shoulder.

"Shut up, or you don't get to be our photographer!" I told him. He snagged some of my animal crackers and I pushed him again.

We walked away then, back over to where the others were. They were standing around talking about the walkers that had passed us by. Andrea called them a herd, like a herd of cattle and I thought that sounded about right. It scared me and I hoped that we could find Sophia soon and get off the interstate and find somewhere safe for all of us to hide out for awhile.

Shane herded us back to work and I followed Carl a few cars down, to an old rusty pickup truck. I gave him a boost, because I was taller than he was at the time, and he looked in the window.

"What do you see?" I asked, staggering slightly under his weight.

"A dead guy." He answered. "But he's got something on him. Wanna check it out?"

I let him down. "I don't know…" I trailed off. I didn't want to, but I didn't want to look like a wuss either.

"Come on, Libby." Carl said. "Just a peek!"

I sighed. "All right, but if we get caught, this was all your idea, got it? I don't need any trouble from my Dad."

"Fine." Carl said. "The whole thing was my idea and I made fun of you until you agreed to do it, too."

I nodded. "That'll work…except if you really made fun of me, I'd kick your ass."

He grinned and together, we opened the rusty truck door. It stunk, and the dead guy was scary looking. He'd had red hair, I saw and was dressed the same way my Dad liked to dress, in jeans and a shirt with the sleeves ripped off. Carl and I stared at him for a few seconds.

"Well," I said to him. "Are you gonna get whatever it was that caught your eye or what?"

"Huh?" He looked at me. "Oh, yeah!"

And he climbed up into the cab gingerly, trying to keep from touching the dead man. I stared at him, the dead guy I mean, and I wondered what his name was, where he was from. Did he have a family? Questions I would never know the answers to.

Carl was pulling on a black thing on the dead man's side, but it wouldn't come loose.

"Help me." He said and he started tugging on it again.

I grabbed his back belt loops and started tugging on_ him_ and together we managed to pull it free, both of us falling, with small shrieks, to the pavement. The dead man loomed over us, his dead eyes looking at me. I scrambled back a little bit and Carl moved to open up whatever it was he had pulled out.

"Shane!" He said, pulling me to my feet. We ran over to where Shane was.

"Carl! Libby!" Lori came around the side of the RV. "What happened?"

"Mom!" Carl said. "Look! Libby and I found something cool!"

He spread it out on the ground. "Shane, check it out! It's an arsenal."

And it was. There were knives and stuff I didn't even recognize in it. Me, raised by two hunters and trackers!

"That's real cool, guys." Shane said. He didn't look at us, intent on what he was doing. "Go give them to Dale."

"Check this one out!" Carl ignored Shane's request and pulled a small axe from the case. "Look, Libby, a hatchet!" He swung it at me.

"Watch it, Paul Bunyan!" I said, leaping back. "God, you tryin' to take my arm off?"

"Carl, don't play with those." Lori told him.

"They're really sharp!" He said. "Can I keep one?"

"What did I just say?" Lori asked. "Are you crazy? No way!"

"Shane," Carl had a bit of a whine in his tone. "Tell her to let me keep one!"

Shane pulled his head form under the hood. "I thought I told you two to go give those to Dale!" He said in an irritable tone. "Now go!"

Carl snatched them away from his Mom and walked off. I followed. God, what the hell was his problem, I wondered. Yelling at me, I didn't even do anything. What a jerk.

"You all right?" I asked Carl after he gave the knives to Dale.

He shrugged. "I don't know what his problem is." He said, sitting down on the edge of the road. "I think he hates me."

"Who, Shane?" I asked and Carl nodded. I sat down beside him. "He doesn't hate you, okay?"

"Then why'd he yell at us like that?"

I shrugged. "He's under a lot of pressure. Adults are weird when they're under pressure. You should know that by now."

"I guess."

I slung my arm over Carl's shoulder. "Well, you always got me. I'll never yell at you; unless you piss me off."

Carl grinned at me and we sat there like that for awhile.

* * *

The sun was starting to set when I heard Glenn say "Oh, God. They're back!"

I pushed around Carl and rushed to my Dad. He held me back a little. "Careful, baby, I'm filthy." He said. I shook my head, I didn't care and I hugged him close anyway.

"You didn't find her?" Carol asked, the tears evident in her voice.

"The trail went cold." Rick said. "We'll pick it up again at first light."

"You can't leave my daughter out there on her own." Carol told him. "To spend the night alone in the woods." She looked at me and Dad, our arms still around one another. "Would you leave your daughter out there, Daryl?" She asked him. "Would you?"

"Being out in the dark ain't gonna do us no good." Dad told her. "We'd just be trippin' over ourselves; more people would get lost."

"But…she's twelve." Carol cried. "She can't be out there on her own! You didn't find anything?"

"I know this hard," Rick said to her. "But I'm gonna have to ask you not to panic. We know she was out there!"

"We tracked her for a long while." Dad added.

"We have to make this an organized effort." Rick told us all. "Daryl knows the woods better than anybody; I've asked him to oversee this."

I smiled up at my father. It still seemed a little weird, calling him my father, but I was getting used to it. And I was proud to say he was mine.

"Is that blood?" Carol asked faintly, pointing at my Dad's pant leg.

"We took down a walker." Rick told her.

"A…a walker?" She reeled a little and I thought she might pass out. "Oh my God."

"There was no sign it was ever anywhere near Sophia." Rick assured her.

"How…can you know that?" Andrea asked. Rick sighed and looked at Dad.

I looked down at his bloody clothes and I knew.

"We cut the son of a bitch open," He said. "Made sure."

Carol sat down on the guard rail and Lori sat with her, putting her arm around as she breathed heavily. I moved away from my Dad and sat down on her other side, sliding my hand into hers. She squeezed my fingers and looked around me at Rick.

"How could you just leave her out there to begin with?" She asked. "How could you just leave her?"

"Those two walkers were on us." Rick tried to explain. "I had to draw them off."

My Dad touched me on the arm them and drew me away from the middle of it all. I felt my throat burn and knew tears were close. I looked up at him.

"You'll find her?" I asked and he nodded.

"My little girl got left in the woods." Carol was crying and so was I.

Dad lifted me over the guard rail and climbed over himself. "Come on with me." He said. "Help me clean up."

I followed him to the huge water truck and grabbed one of the rags that had been left there and some soap someone had found in a travel bag. Dad stripped off his shirt and I helped him wash the blood and muck off his back and the back of his neck. I helped him get it all out of his hair and off his face, too.

"Where are we gonna sleep tonight?" I asked him after he was slightly cleaner.

"I thought we might make a bed in the back of one of these pickups." He said. And that's exactly what we did.

We had plenty of blankets and even some pillows to make it soft, but it was so hot, I only grabbed a sheet to cover myself with. I was sleeping in only a tank top and a pair of cotton shorts. I lay down beside my Dad. He had his crossbow right on the other side of him, within arms reach.

"You all right?" He asked me. I nodded and then realized he couldn't see me in the dark.

"Yeah." I told him. "I'm scared, but I'm okay."

"Come here." He said and scooted over into his arms. "You're about gettin' too big for me to hold you like this."

"It's almost my birthday." I said. "Just a few more weeks."

"I know it." He replied. "Fourteen years old, God it seems like just yesterday you was a newborn."

"What was it like?" I turned to face him. "Knowing that I was your baby, but not being able to say anything?"

"It was like torture." He said. "But I stuck it out and it paid off, didn't it? Because you know now. You know that I done everything in my power to give you the best life I knew how."

"You always promised you would get me out of that trailer park." I smiled. "And you did."

He chuckled. "That's one way to look at it, I guess." He kissed my hair. "Go to sleep now, Libby. We got a day tomorrow."

I kissed his nose. "I love you, Daddy."

He smiled and his eyes got that light in them. "I love you too, baby."

I turned over then and drifted to sleep, trying not to think about my friend being lost in the woods.


	21. Chapter Twenty-One

The next morning we were all up at first light. It was settled. Carl and I were going into the woods to help look for Sophia.

When I found out that Carl had been granted permission to go, I turned to my Dad.

"Come_ on_!" I said. "I'm older than Carl, why can't I go?"

"Age don't have nothin' to do with it." He said. I stomped my foot. He looked at me, eyebrows raised. "Did you _really_ just stomp your foot?"

"This is so unfair! I wanna help! Please, Daddy." I looked up at him and could see he was wavering. "I'll be with you, so I'll be safe. And I've already lost so many…"

"All right!" He held up his hand before I could bring Skyla into it. "You can come too."

I jumped up and down. "Haha!" And then I realized everyone was looking at me, so I stopped. "I mean, uh, you know, that's cool."

Dad shook his head. "Come on." He said.

I tied my old, broken in sneakers on my feet. Carl grinned at me; we were both so excited to be getting to help out.

In the woods, I walked between my father and Rick. Dad said it would be a good idea to keep me and Carl apart, because we talked too much and I kind of have a loud voice. Something I once thought I had inherited from my father, back when I thought that Merle held that honor. Now I don't know where I got it. Something I needed to talk to my Dad about.

I had a small knife, not that it would do me any good, and my Dad was right in front of me, so if a walker came at me, he could take it out no problem. But Carl got something, so I guess he gave me something too, to keep me quiet.

We'd been walking for a bit, and I was just thinking how glad I was that I'd worn my old shoes, when Dad held up his hand and stopped so quickly I almost stumbled into him. Rick caught me and held me straight while I regained me balance.

"What is it?" I asked, peering through the trees for a better look. It was a tent, a bright yellow tent.

"_Shh…"_ Rick shushed me gently and I fell back a little bit.

"She could be in there." Shane said quietly.

"Could be a whole bunch of things in there." Dad said.

He, Rick, and Shane started forward. I stood beside Carl and inserted my hand into his. I was praying…_please_…please let Sophia be in there and let her be okay.

"Carol!" Rick was beckoning for her to come forward and my hopes rose a little. Maybe she was all right after all…

"Call out softly," Rick was saying to her. "If she's in there, yours is the first voice she needs to hear."

Carol began to call out for her daughter in a low tone. "Sophia? Sweetie? It's Mommy…"

When no one answered or came out, my Dad began to slowly unzip the tent. Shane and Rick went forward to help in when it was completely opened. I watched the revulsion on my Dad's face and he coughed. It couldn't be Sophia, I told myself, even if she were…dead…she wouldn't have had time to make such a stink.

Dad took a deep breath and stepped inside the tent. My grasp on Carl's fingers tightened.

"Daryl?" Carol called out. "Daryl?"

He came out a few seconds later taking very deep breaths. "It ain't her." He said.

"What's in there?" Lori asked.

"Some guy." Dad answered. "Did what Jenner said; opted out. Ain't that what he called it?"

"You mean he killed himself?" I asked and he nodded.

"Yeah."

I shuddered. I couldn't imagine the fear it would take to do something like that. We'd never been a really religious family, but I'd been raised to believe that suicide was the ultimate sin, along with murder. It wasn't your place to take your life or anyone elses. You didn't play God.

Church bells rang out and my head snapped up. Dad took off in the direction they were coming from and we all followed him. We stopped when we reached a clearing.

"Which way?" Shane asked.

"I think this way." Rick replied. "But damn, it's hard to tell out here."

"Someone is ringing those bells." Glenn said.

"If we hear them, maybe Sophia does too." Carol added, hope shining on her face.

"She might be ringing them herself." Rick said. "Come on."

I'd never been an overly athletic kid; I was slender, but soft and all this running was about to kill me. I breathed a very heavy sigh of relief when we were out of the woods and in a church cemetery.

"That can't be it." Shane said. "There's no steeple, no bells. Rick…"

But Rick had already taken off running and the rest of us had choice but to follow. I was lagging behind and I knew it. I was the last one to round the corner of the church. I saw my dad looking for me and the relief that flooded his eyes when he saw me. He and Rick were standing on either side of the big red church doors, preparing to open them.

They did and I felt a momentary bit of relief. There were people inside! But when those people began to snarl and turn around, I could see that they weren't human any longer. I started forward a bit, but my Dad's arm shot out, pushing me back. I stumbled into Carl, who caught me.

"_Stay back_." Dad hissed at both of us. Carl opened his mouth like he was going to argue, but I elbowed him and he was quiet. Dad handed me his crossbow, which was so heavy I nearly dropped it, and pulled the knife from his pocket.

Carl helped me support the crossbow and we watched as our fathers, along with Shane killed the three walkers in the church.

"Sophia!" Rick yelled. There was no answer.

"Hey, J.C." Dad said to the large carving of Jesus on the cross. "You taking requests?"

"I'm telling you, we got the wrong church," Shane said. "There's no bells, no steeple, Rick."

The words were barely out of his mouth when the bells began to ring again. The adults rushed outside and Carl and I followed. There was a speaker on the roof and the bells sounds were coming from it. Glenn opened the tiny box at the bottom and ripped something out of it. The bells stopped.

"A timer." Dad said, out of breath. "It's on a timer."

"I'm gonna go back in for a bit." Carol told us, her voice quavering.

I was feeling kinda shaky myself. "Daddy…" I said, looking up at him. He put his arm around me and led me to the shade of a large tree.

"You okay?" He asked. I shook my head. I felt faint. I leaned over and threw up my breakfast on the ground, my Dad holding my ponytail back so I wouldn't get any vomit in my hair.

He rubbed my back, like he used to do when I was little. "Get it all up." He told me. "You'll feel better."

When I was finished, I straightened and he held his hand against my forehead. "I hope you ain't comin' down with something." He said. I shook my head and wiped my hand across my mouth.

"No, it's just the heat." I told him. "And all the runnin', I ain't used to it. And those walkers in the church…and Sophia…" I trailed off.

"Hey," He tucked his fingers under my chin and brought my face up so I had to look at him. "We're gonna find her, you here me?"

I nodded and smiled at him. "Let's go inside and sit down for a few minutes, okay?"

He put his arm around me and we walked to the church together.

It was cool inside and it felt good. I lay down on a pew and Dad stood behind me. Carol was praying like she didn't know we were there.

"I prayed for safe passage from Atlanta and you provided." She said. "I prayed for Ed to be punished for laying his hands on me and for looking at his own daughter with whatever sickness was growing in his soul. I prayed you'd put a stop to it and give me a chance to raise her right, help her to not make my mistakes. She's so fearful. She's so young in her way."

My Dad slipped around the side of the pew and sat beside me. I moved my head up into his lap and he stroked my hair. Carol continued like we weren't there.

"Praying for Ed's death was a sin." She said. "Please, don't let this be my punishment. Let her be safe, alive and safe, please Lord. Punish me however you want, but show mercy on her." She turned then and stopped, as if she was surprised to see us all there behind her.

I closed my eyes and nuzzled against my Dad. He continued to stroke my hair and we sat like that for a bit.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, we were all back out under a tree in the cemetery. Not the one I had puked under, a different one, closer to the woods.

"Ahem," Shane coughed and everyone looked up at him. "Y'all are gonna follow the creek bed back, Daryl you're in charge. Me and Rick are gonna hang back, search this area for another hour or two, just to be through."

"You're splittin' us up?" Dad asked in surprise. "You sure?"

"Yeah," Shane said. "We'll catch up to you."

"We wanna stay too." Carl said, indicating between the two of us. It was amazing, I thought, we'd known each other for only a handful of weeks and he already knew how my mind worked.

"Yeah." I said.

"We're her friends." Carl said. He looked at both of his parents and then at my Dad. "Please?"

Lori touched Carl's head. "Just be careful, okay?" She said.

"I will." He promised. My Dad looked at Rick and Shane and then at Carl.

"Watch out for my girl." He told him. Carl nodded.

"I will," He said again. "I promise."

I hugged my Dad. "Be careful." He told me. "Listen to whatever Rick or Shane tells you and stay by Carl, all right?"

"All right." I said. He bent his whiskered cheek down and I gave him a kiss. "Your shave is coming out." I told him. It was something I used to say to him and my..._Merle_ when I was little, when their whiskers scratched me.

He smiled and hugged me again. "I'll take care of it when I get a chance."

They walked in one direction and we started in the other.

"Give me a minute?" Rick asked and Shane nodded. He pulled the back of my ponytail and ruffled Carl's hair.

"Come on, you two, let's go wait over here."

We sat on the concrete steps of the church as we waited for Rick.

"Get what you needed?" Shane asked as Rick came past us.

"I guess I'll find out." He answered and kept walking. We hurried to follow him.

As I've said, I've never been much of an outdoor girl. When I was young, Dad tried to teach me track and to hunt, but I wouldn't have any of it, something I now regret. I have always preferred to be curled up inside with a book or in front of a movie to being outside doing…well, anything. Skyla always joked that my favorite outdoor activity was coming back in and she was right.

I liked these woods, though, I thought, as we walked along. They were peaceful and lovely. I liked the way the light filtered green to the round through the trees.

Branches snapped to my left and without realizing what I was doing, I grabbed Shane's hand. He looked at me, surprised, and I dropped it.

"Sorry." I whispered and he kind of smiled and tugged on my hair again.

The snapping branches continued and both men raised their guns. Carl and I stayed behind them…it was for nothing, though. It was just a deer that walked out of the woods towards us. Shane made to shoot it, but Rick stopped him.

Carl and I grinned at one another and moved quietly towards it. It was a beautiful thing, I thought, trying not to feel guilty for all the deer meat I'd eaten in my life. It looked at us and we looked at it. I smiled and moved a little closer, letting go of Carl's hand. That's when I heard a loud blast and felt a burning pain in my ribs.

I looked down at the blood spreading across my white shirt and I realized I'd been shot. That's when I blacked out.

* * *

**Authors Note's: HUGE props to Dino-SOAR, who gave me the wonderful idea of having Libby be the one to get shot instead of Carl. Shakes things up a bit, I think. Next chapter to be up soon!**


	22. Chapter Twenty-Two

I don't remember very much of the next few days. Pain…that's what I remember. Someone asking me if I knew my blood type. I did…A Positive. I told them that. More pain, as the man named Hershel dug the bullet fragment from my chest. Someone was screaming, I thought. I realized it was me. I was screaming for my Daddy.

And when I woke up, and the pain was dull, he was there, kneeling by my bed, his head resting near mine.

"Daddy?" I whispered and he raised his head slowly, like he was in a dream.

"Libby?" He asked. He shot up. "Doc! Doc! She's awake!"

A man came in then, an elderly man that I remembered from my painful dreams. "So she is. How're you feeling, honey?"

"I'm okay." I said. "I think." My voice was scratchy. "Can I have something to drink?"

"Here." Daddy held my head, helped me sip some water.

"What happened?" I asked. "Where are we?"

"You got shot." Daddy told me. "This man, this doctor, he saved your life. Him and Rick."

"Rick?" I asked. I struggled to sit up, but my ribs burned like they were on fire. I groaned and lay back down.

"Rick carried you here after you got shot." The man, Hershel, told me. "Carried you over two miles at a run, and then gave you blood when you got here."

"He gave me blood?" I asked. "Why...why'd he do that?"

"Him and Carl both did." Hershel told me. "You're all three A Positive. You'd have died without them."

"And Shane." My Dad added, a strange look on his face.

"What'd Shane do?" I asked.

"He went and got the supplies you needed to live." Hershel said. "Risked his own life to do it; lost one of our men."

I looked quickly to my father. "Who?" I asked fearfully.

"The man who accidently shot you." Dad said. I closed my eyes.

"Why'd…why'd they all do that stuff for me?" I asked.

"Truthfully?" There was no humor in Hershel's voice. "I think they were scared of your Daddy here. He about tore this place apart."

I opened my eyes and looked at my Dad. "You didn't?"

He at least had the good sense to look shamed. "I was worried."

"I'm...I…will I be okay?" I asked. Hershel nodded.

"You're gonna take a bit to recuperate, but you're gonna be fine." He said. "Got some people here who wanna see you." He opened the door, and it was Carl, Rick, and Lori.

Carl came to me first. "How do you feel?" He asked. I smiled.

"Like I got shot." I answered. He smiled back. "I heard you gave me blood."

He nodded and held out his arm, where there was a deep bruise. "Yeah, me and Dad both."

I looked at both of them. "Thank you."

After that, everyone but Dad left for awhile.

"Scared you, didn't I?" I asked him.

"You have no idea." He cracked his knuckles.

I closed my eyes again. "I'm sleepy." I told him.

"Then go to sleep."

I peeked an eye open. "You won't leave?"

"Of course not, not if you don't want me to." He kissed my forehead.

"When I feel a little better, will you keep looking for Sophia?" I asked. He nodded,

"Yeah. I promised, didn't I?"

I smiled and closed my eyes, drifting into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

And that's how it went for a few days. I was awake, he was there, I slept, and he was there. Pretty much everyone came in to see me and ask how I was doing. Hershel had two daughters, Maggie and Beth and they were both very nice. Beth was seventeen, closer to my age and we had a lot in common. Maggie was older, in her twenties, but she was really nice. She was the one who rode into the woods to find my Dad and bring him to me.

"He didn't want to come with me at first." She told me. "Stubborn guy, your Dad."

I grinned. Dad was in the bathroom right then, so I could say it. "No kidding."

"Can I ask you something?" Maggie leaned forward. I shrugged.

"Sure, I guess. What?"

"Is it true that you thought for years he was your uncle?"

I nodded. "Yeah…who told you that?"

"Glenn." She admitted. "He wasn't gossiping or downing you guys or anything, I was just curious about you and he told me."

"Well, I think that Short Round needs to keep his fucking trap shut." My Dad said from the doorway.

Maggie turned to look at him and then looked back at me. She wiggled her eyebrows and I giggled.

After she was gone, Dad shook his head. "If that damn Jenner wasn't already dead, I'd go back to the CDC and kill him."

I turned over on my side and winced. "Why?"

"Well, hells bells, he coulda been a little more discreet about telling everyone you were my kid."

"Dad…he wasn't exactly sane, I don't think." I said.

"You're right, but still." He shook his head again. "Shit pisses me off."

"So," I sat up. "Tomorrow I'll be able to be up and moving around, Hershel says."

"And…?"

"And I think its time you got back on Sophia's trail." I told him. When he started to shake his head, I sighed. "Dad, there are like thirty adults on the place. I'll be fine."

He sighed. "We'll see, okay? We'll see."


	23. Chapter Twenty-Three

The next day I was up and moving around…kind of. I was able to walk up and down the hallway at least, and to take myself to the bathroom. Do you know how embarrassing it is for a thirteen-year-old girl to have to have her father carry her to the toilet? It's _excruciating_. And the worse part is, he wouldn't leave the bathroom!

"Dad, I can't pee with you in here." I'd tell him, but to no avail. At least I didn't have to worry about that anymore.

Now I was trying to get him to go out and look for Sophia.

"I don't like the idea of leaving you here alone." He told me. I sighed.

"I won't be alone!" I said. "Jesus, there's like 100 adults around!"

He rolled his eyes. "Stop exaggerating."

"Fine, then there are like sixteen adults around." I amended. "I'll be fine. You heard Hershel; I'm out of the woods now."

"And what're you gonna do all day while I'm out?" He asked. I nodded towards the box of books that Beth had brought me earlier.

"Read." I said. "A hobby that I've sorely missed the past few months."

Dad started poking through the box. "You realize that these are all Sweet Valley High books?"

I shrugged. "So what? It's something to read. It'll keep me busy for awhile." I looked at him. "Please Daddy." I said. "I need you to do this. I need you to find my friend."

He hesitated and then nodded. "All right." He said. "All right. I'll head out first thing in the morning."

I smiled and closed my eyes. I still tired easily. "Good."

The next morning, he kissed me before he left. He'd been sleeping on a cot beside my bed.

"Be careful." I told him sleepily.

"You too." He said. "Don't try to be up and around too much, doing stuff. I don't want you pushin' it. If you need anything, you call out."

"Okay." I said. "Now go away so I can go back to sleep."

He chuckled and kissed me again. "See you later."

"Hmmm…" I said, already half asleep.

When I awoke, a few hours later, Maggie had brought me a breakfast tray. It was just simple food, toast with jam and a glass of juice, but it was still nice to eat breakfast in bed.

"Could you hand me one of those books?" I asked her. She nodded and leaned over the box.

"Which one?"

I shrugged. "Doesn't matter."

She looked over her shoulder at me. "You sure?"

I nodded. "Yep."

She dug through them and handed me one. I looked at the title _'Family Secrets'_.

"It was my favorite of the series." Maggie said. "These used to be mine and then they went to Beth."

"Really?" I asked. I scanned the back cover and shrugged. "All right, I'll give it a try. Thanks. And thanks for breakfast."

She smiled and nodded. "You're welcome."

After Maggie was gone, I allowed myself to be shamelessly sucked into the Sweet Valley High world, where all the girls were pretty, all the boys were handsome, and there were no walkers. I finished the book and was halfway through another one come mid-afternoon, when there was a soft knock at my door.

"Come in." I said and looked up to see Carl standing there.

"How are you?" He asked. I shrugged.

"Not bad." I patted the edge of my bed and he sat. "What's up?"

"Nothing." He said. "I'm bored is all. Just wondered what you were doing."

I held up the book. "Reading, seeing as I'm not really allowed to get up."

"Yeah, well, it so happens that Dale has travel Scrabble that he forgot about. He just found it." Carl held up the box, which I hadn't even noticed he'd been carrying. "You wanna play?"

I grinned. "Yeah, sure."

He helped me prop up in bed with some pillows and we set the game up. It was fun, even if I did crush him.

After we played three games in a row, Hershel came in and he and Carl helped me walk up and down the hallway a few times. And then I had to pee. After all those days with my Dad intruding, it felt nice to be alone in the bathroom again. I was surprised though, when I looked down and saw the spots of blood in my panties. It was a little early for my period, but maybe stress had caused it to come sooner. I looked around, realizing that I had no idea where they kept the tampons.

"Er…Hershel?" I asked through the door. "Can you have Maggie come in here for a minute?"

"She went on a supply run with Glenn." Carl said.

"Um…how about Beth?" I asked.

"Are you all right in there?" Hershel asked. I nodded and then realized they couldn't see me.

"I'm fine." I said. "Just some…uh…girl stuff."

"Oh." There was a tone of understanding in Hershel's voice. "I'll have Beth come up right away."

"What's going on?" I could hear Carl through the door.

"Just some girl problems, nothing for you to be concerned about." Herschel told him.

A few minutes later, Beth came in. Her face reddened a little to find me still sitting on the toilet.

"What's the matter?" She asked.

"I'm having my period." I told her.

"Is this your first one?"

I shook my head. "No, I've had it since last year, but I don't know where y'all keep your…stuff."

"_Oh_." Her eyes widened. "Here, under the sink. We have plenty, so take what you need." She got the box out for me and I took one.

"Thanks, Beth." I told her. She smiled.

"No problem."

Once I had cleaned myself up, I wadded my dirty panties in my hand and carried them back to my room. Carl's face was red and he wouldn't look at me. He waited outside while I put on fresh underwear.

"What?" I asked him when he came back in. "Why're you acting all weird?"

"I'm not acting weird." He said.

"Yes you are." I told him. "And your face is all red. It's not that big of a deal."

"Dunno what you're talking about." He said. I rolled my eyes.

"I'm a girl." I told him.

"I _know_ that." He said.

"Girls have periods." I said matter-of-factly. His face flamed again.

"Don't…don't say it like that." Carl looked uncomfortable. I sighed.

"All right…I won't talk about it, you big wuss." I said. "Come on, let's play another round."

The next day was pretty much the same. I hung around with Carl in my room. Beth brought in some more board games, so we played Risk, Life, and Clue. It was a pretty good day…at least until Beth rushed in the room.

"Your Dad's been shot!" She said to me.

* * *

**Authors Note's: The next chapter will pick up at the end of Chupacabra and pretty much follow out season two from there. I've decided to split this into two stories. This is (obviously) the first one. The second, which will be called Falling Away From Me, will be about the group and how they survived the winter. There will also be bits of Carl/Libby fluff as they explore a childhood romance.**


	24. Chapter Twenty-Four

I flew down the stairs as quickly as my injured body would let me move. I could see Rick and Shane coming across the yard, something limp between then. It was my Dad; he was bloody and dirty and looked like hell.

"Is he dead?" I asked, feeling very faint.

"No, just unconscious." Rick told me.

"Who shot him?"

"Um…" Andrea stepped forward, looking highly embarrassed. "That was me. I thought he was a walker!"

"I told you not to shoot until we were sure!" Rick snapped at her. "You could've killed him!"

"I…" She trailed off and I gave her a hard look.

"You_ shot_ my Dad? What's the matter with you?" I demanded. Dale stepped forward.

"Now, Libby, it was an accident…"

"Wouldn't have been no accident if she'd listened to Rick." I said, not even looking at him. My eyes were on her.

"I said I was sorry, Liberty." She told me. "And I really am."

"What if you had killed him?" I asked. "What would you have done then?"

She didn't answer, didn't look at me. I took another step forward, not about to back down, but Maggie caught me with her arm.

"How about we go up and see how your Daddy's doing?" She asked. "And you're not supposed to be up and moving around this much anyway. You'll pull out your stitches."

"Fine." I said. I shot Andrea another nasty look and allowed Maggie and Carl to help me up the stairs.

They had laid my Dad out on the bed in the room next to mine. He was awake now, groaning in pain.

"Is he all right?" I asked and Herschel nodded.

"The bullet just grazed him; I already took care of his head. He's lost some blood where the arrow went through here in his side, but he'll be all right."

"What arrow?" I pushed around Shane and then reeled back a little at the sight of my father's blood on the bed. "Oh my God. Oh my God."

I felt sick to my stomach and the room was spinning. Then everything went black.

I guess I was only out for a few minutes and when I came to, I'd been laid down on a cot beside my father's bed. Carl was leaning over me.

"She's awake." He said anxiously.

"What happened?" I asked.

"You fainted." Hershel replied matter-of-factly.

"She's always been squeamish at the sight of blood." Daddy said. "Gets it from her Mama. The first time Baby ever saw me and Merle gut a deer, she passed out cold." He grinned. "Skyla razzed her about it for weeks."

"I'm_ not_ squeamish." I said, trying to sit up. "And I don't get_ nothin'_ from my Mama, if you can even call her that."

Dad rolled his eyes. "All right, Libby ain't squeamish; this was a one time thing."

"Damn skippy." I muttered, low enough so the adults wouldn't hear, and Carl laughed. My Dad gave us a suspicious look.

"I suppose you think you're stayin' in here tonight?" He said and I nodded.

"Yeah, I am. Andrea might mistake you for a walker and try to shoot you again." I said. "Stupid woman."

"I don't suppose you know what happened to my horse?" Herschel asked him.

"If it's smart, it left the country." Dad said.

"I could've told you she'd throw you." Herschel told him. "We call her Nelly, as in Nervous Nelly. I'd have told you if you'd bother to ask."

"Daddy, did you take his horse without asking?" I said.

"He did." Herschel answered. I sighed, but didn't say anything.

I lay on the cot and waited for everyone to leave the room. When they did I looked up at my father.

"If you do stuff like that, like stealing his horse, they're always gonna think of us as a couple of lowlife rednecks." I said. He shook his head.

"I_ am_ a lowlife redneck." He replied. "But you ain't. Come on up here and lay with your old man, I need to talk to you."

I climbed up in the bed besides, trying to be careful of his wounds and of my own.

"Guess we've both been shot now, ain't we?" I asked and he chuckled.

"Yeah, guess so." He chewed his thumbnail, something he did when he was very nervous. "Liberty, I saw your Daddy today." He said finally. I looked up at him.

"_What_?"

"Merle…I saw Merle." He closed his eyes. "I guess it was probably a…a hallucination, but dammit, it seemed so real. I told him."

"Told him what?" I asked. He was scaring me with this talk.

"I told him you was mine and now that I have you as my daughter, he ain't ever gettin' you back." He shook his head, his eyes still closed. "We ain't never goin' back to the way things was. I'm your Daddy and he's your uncle and that's the end of it."

I smiled and rested my head near his. "I love you."

"You too." He said. He shifted his weight and then winced. "Why don't you run on now, let me get some sleep?"

I nodded and got out of the bed. It was still hard for me to move around too much, but I thought I could make it back down the stairs, with Carl's help.

A little bit later, I was coming from the bathroom, where I'd washed my hands and I heard my Daddy talking to someone. It was Carol.

"I brought you some supper." She told him. "You must be starving."

I watched in the shadow of the hallway as she stepped in the room and kissed him on the head. This surprised me. I mean, yes, my Dad is a good looking guy…but Carol? Really? He didn't seem like her type. But her husband hadn't either.

Standing there, I allowed myself to play out a little daydream, where Sophia was found safe and my Dad and Carol got married. Sophia and I would be sisters! Oh, that would be so cool! I sighed, knowing it would never come to pass. Dad was still in love with Skyla, I could see it in his face, in his eyes, when she was mentioned.

"Didn't do nothin' Rick or Shane wouldn't have done." I heard him say.

"I know," Carol answered. "And you're every bit as good as them. Every bit."

I waited for her to pass and then walked into his room. He was sitting up in his bed, his face slightly red.

I thought about bringing it up, but I decided not to say anything. "How you feelin'?"

"Like shit." He said. "But, uh, Carol brought me something to eat."

I nodded. "I see that. You need my help getting it set up?"

"Nope, I can manage." He said. Carl came up behind me.

"Libby, it's about time to eat." He said. "You comin'?"

I looked at my Dad. "No, I think I'm gonna stay here with my Daddy."

He shook his head. "Y'all go on down and eat with the others." He told me. "You been cooped up here for too long, Libby. Go eat with your friends."

I paused at the doorway. "Daddy…I don't feel right about leavin' you up here to eat by yourself."

"Its fine, baby." He said. "Go on, now."

So I did. Carl helped me down the stairs and I sat between him and Glenn at the small table. The food was good, the best I'd eaten in a really long time. I still felt uneasy though, as I looked up at the ceiling, thinking of my Dad up there alone.


	25. Chapter Twenty-Five

"_Waiting on a Sunday afternoon_," I sang underneath my breath as I helped Lori hang clothes on the line. "_For what I read between the lines_…"

She smiled at me and I realized I was singing a little louder than I meant to be. "Sorry." I said. She shook her head.

"Stone Temple Pilots?" She asked. "Isn't that a little before your time?"

I shrugged. "90-94." I said. "Best time for rock and roll."

Rick, who was walking past, stopped. "I think that was '84. Van Halan's Panama."

I shook my head. "What? No way. Seattle, 1991. Grunge Volume One." I sighed. "If you weren't there, you couldn't possibly understand the magic."

Rick blinked. "You weren't even born." I held up my hand.

"Irrelevant." I told him. "At least your wife knows STP when she hears it, even if it is being mangled horribly."

"STP." Rick shook his head. "And you're what, all of fourteen?"

"I will be in a few days." I said, grinning.

"Shouldn't girls your age be listening to, I don't know that Bieber kid?" He asked. "Instead of rocking out to Nirvana and Pearl Jam?"

I snorted. "Please. I do_ not_ listen to the Beibs. I like to rock out." I did a quick headbang. "Go ask my Dad, it drives him nuts too."

Since I was feeling better and Dad was tired of sleeping in the house, we'd moved back out to our tent, in the yard with everyone else.

"Daryl?" Rick called.

"What?"

"Does Libby's choice in music get on your nerves?"

"Yeah." He answered. "Merle and me, we tried to get her into Skynyrd or Aerosmith, but no, it had to be Soundgarden and Alice in Chains."

Rick nodded. "Aerosmith." He said. "That's my man in there."

"Oh, don't let him fool you." I raised my voice, to be sure my Dad heard. "His favorite song is Lady, by Styx. He knows all the words by heart and he sings it in the shower. _Badly_."

"So, that's where you get your lack of musical talent?" Lori teased and I grinned.

"Must be." We went back to hanging clothes and Rick went on his way to whatever he was doing.

"Actually, Libby, I wanted to ask you something." Lori said. I looked at her.

"What's up?"

"I know you're very smart, and as you probably noticed, Carl is awful in English. I was wondering if you could maybe tutor him." She smiled. "I know it probably not how you want to spend your spare time, but it'd be great if you could."

I nodded. "Sure, sounds like fun."

She nodded and smiled. "Thank you."

She had a couple of English workbooks she gave me.

"How do you want me to do this?" I asked.

"Just start from the beginning." She replied. "I have a feeling he'll listen to you a lot quicker than he did me or any of his teachers."

The first thing I needed to do, I decided, was to make sure he knew and understood grammar terms, so I decided to make up some flashcards. I got a stack of index cards from Dale and an ink pen and headed back to our tent to get to work.

Andrea was coming out as I went in.

"Hey," She said. I looked up at her, but didn't say anything. She smiled. "Come on now, Libby. Your Daddy's willing to forgive me, why can't you?"

Still I didn't say anything, just continued on into our tent. My Dad was lying on his cot, reading a book.

"You oughta be nicer to her." He said without even looking up.

"Are you serious?" I asked him, sitting down on my own cot. "God, she _shot_ you."

"She was just protecting the camp." He told me. "I don't hold no hard feelin's for that."

"What if she'd accidently shot me while protecting the camp?" I asked. "Still not holdin' any hard feelings?"

He didn't meet my eyes. "That's different."

"Liar." I said.

He shook his head and looked at what I held in my hands. "What's that you got there?"

"Lori asked me to tutor Carl in English." I told him. "I'm making up some flashcards of grammar terms."

He snorted and shook his head. I glared at him. "What?"

"Oughta be more worried about him learnin' to shoot and protect himself instead of all that book stuff." He said. "Ain't no use for it now."

"There's always a use for proper grammar and book learning." I said primly. I looked up to see him grinning. "Now what?"

He shook his head again. "Just wonderin' how a girl like you came from a dumb redneck like me."

I went to him and kissed his forehead. "You aren't a dumb redneck." I told him. "Now, I'm going to make these flashcards and you're going to help me."

He sighed. "Libby, you know I ain't no good at that shit."

"All you have to do is read me the word and definition." I said, handing him the book. "Start here, at noun, and we'll work our way through."

He sat his book aside. "Fine." He said, taking the workbook from me. "Noun: a person, place, thing, or idea. Common Noun: a general noun. Proper Noun: a specific noun."

And that's how we spent the next few hours.

* * *

Sixty-one flashcards later, my Dad had sent me out of our tent, telling me to "go play in the sunshine and act like a normal damn kid for once". I did as I was told, but grabbed the stack of cards on the way out. I found Carl in shadow of the RV.

"Libby," He whispered. "Come here and see what I've got."

"What?" I asked, hurrying towards him. He was wearing his Dad's police hat. I liked the way it looked on him.

He lifted his shirt to show me a gun tucked into his pants. I sucked in my breath. "Carl, where did you get that?" I hissed. "Why do you have it?"

He blinked. "To protect you." He said.

"My Dad protects me!"

Carl looked almost confused. "But…he's hurt. He might not be able to, so I will."

I didn't even know how to reply to that. I looked around to see Shane headed our way. "Quick!" I muttered. "Put it away! Act natural!"

He pulled his shirt down over it and we leaned against the RV.

Shane looked at each of us in turn. "What's happening, kiddos?" He asked.

I shrugged. "Nothing."

He looked at Carl, who also shrugged. "Nothing."

"That's it?" He asked. "Nothing?"

I nodded. "Well…I'm tutoring Carl in English." Shane smiled.

Carl looked at me and then back at the older man. "I wanna learn to shoot. So does Libby."

I didn't really, but I kept quiet. Shane gave us both hard looks again.

"Now, that's something you need to talk to your parents about." He said. "That's their call, and with Libby here just being back on her feet, I don't know that her Daddy is gonna like that idea too much."

I shrugged. This was Carl's rodeo, I was just along for the ride. Shane was looking at him hard again. "What'd you got there, little buddy?" He asked him and Carl showed him the gun.

I sighed and that had Shane looking at me. "Were you in on this?" He asked while snatching the gun away from Carl.

"Uh…" I glanced at my friend. I didn't want to get him in trouble, but I didn't want to get in trouble for something I didn't do.

"She didn't." Carl told him. "I just showed it to her right before you came over here."

Shane's gaze was back on me. "That true?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I was in my tent making grammar flashcards before that. You can ask my Dad, if you want."

"No, I believe you." Shane said. "But you better head on back there, because when Lori finds out that Carl here's been toting a gun around, it ain't gonna be pretty."

I nodded again and walked back to our tent. Dad was asleep, so I lay down on my own cot and tried to ignore it when the yelling started.

* * *

It had been decided. Carl and I were going to learn how to shoot. My Dad was all for the idea, as I suspected he would be.

"I tried to teach her years ago." He told Shane, who had come by to ask permission for me to go along. "But she wouldn't have nothin' to do with it." He looked at me. "I'm surprised she wants to now."

I shrugged. "If Carl's gonna learn, so am I." And I kept it at that.

But when we were piled in Shane's SUV, I whispered to Carl, "You got me into this, but tomorrow, when I'm tutoring you, you better freakin' pay attention and_ learn_, or I'm gonna kick the shit out of you."

He grinned at me. "Yes, ma'am."

* * *

I was wearing an old baseball cap of Shane's to keep the sun out of my face. My brown hair was poking out of the back in a long ponytail; the sun was starting to lighten it up to a dark blonde.

"All right, focus now." Rick said to me. He was leaning over me, and he positioned my hands on the gun correctly. I pulled the trigger and the bottle I was aiming at shattered.

"I did it!" I said, looking up at him. "Did you see that? I hit it!"

Rick smiled, ruffled my hair. "You're doing real good, hon." He told me. "Real good."

I smiled at him, but I was secretly wishing it was my father there teaching me.

* * *

**Authors Note's: To understand the Daryl/Styx reference, you must read my side story to this one, Wild Horses. And while you're at it, check out my Boondock Saints fic, The Only Exception. Shamlessly plugging myself here.** **:D**


	26. Chapter Twenty-Six

It was my birthday. I was fourteen-years-old.

I was cleaning myself in the bathroom of the farmhouse, looking over my naked body to see if there had been any magical overnight changes. There weren't; I was still skinny to the point of being scrawny and flat chested. And yet…_yet_, as I eyed my hips, there was a hint of curve there that I'd been too busy to notice before. I turned and looked at my bare behind, noting that it was becoming rounder. I sighed in relief; was I _finally_ filling out and becoming a woman?

Not that there was anyone to notice, I thought. My Dad still looked at me as if I was a little kid and really, so did everyone else. Except for Carl. I smiled as I thought of him. He and I were equals, weren't we? The only two really on even footing in this place.

I brushed my hair, pleased with the fact that the sun was lightening it up. This was the most time I'd ever spent outside. If I'd known that was all it would take to make me a blonde, I would've done it a lot sooner.

I dressed quickly in shorts and a tank top with an AC/DC logo, one I'd found out on the interstate. The sunburn I'd gained from being out practicing shooting had mellowed into a nice tan. It brought out the freckles on my face and shoulders and I realized that I looked more like my Dad than ever. I left my hair long as I left the bathroom. It was growing quickly; it was nearly to my waist now.

"Hey, Libby!" I looked up as I stepped off the porch. Carl was coming towards me. "Happy birthday." He said. I grinned.

"Thanks." I said.

"Libby, happy birthday." Carol smiled softly at me from where she sat by the fire, fixing breakfast.

"Thank you."

I got several more birthday wishes on my way back to our tent, from nearly everyone, even Andrea.

"Fourteen, huh?" She asked. I nodded, forcing myself to be polite.

"Yes."

She smiled softly. "I remember when I turned fourteen; my Mom took me and three of my friends to see New Kids on the Block on concert."

"Ew." Shane said from behind us. Andrea gave him a fake dirty look.

"Hey, in 1989, they were my end all by all, so shut up."

"I don't think we're gonna do anything special today." I said. "It makes me sad; this is the first year I won't be getting a firework display."

"Hey, it is the 4th of July, isn't it?" Shane asked and I nodded before continuing into my tent.

My Dad was propped up, reading a book. "There's my Yankee Doodle Sweetheart." He said. "Happy birthday."

"Thanks Dad." I said to him before lying down on my cot.

He looked at me. "What's the matter?"

I shrugged and turned over so he couldn't see my face as I lied. "Nothing." I said.

"Don't give me that shit." He told me. "I can tell something's botherin' you."

I shrugged again and he sighed. "Come over here and lie down with me."

"I don't want to." I said.

"Liberty, why you cryin'?" He asked. "I can hear it in your voice."

He was good. I hadn't even realized I was crying. I reached up and touched my cheeks, surprised to feel wetness there. "I'm okay."

"Come over here and lie down with me." He said again. This time, I did.

He curled his arm around me. "Now, what's wrong?"

"It's my birthday." I told him.

"I know." He said slowly. "I was there."

I shook my head. "I want it to be like my other birthdays." I said. "I know it's selfish, but I want cake and ice cream and presents and fireworks…like before."

He sighed and shifted, his arm tightening on me. "I'd give anything to be able to give you those things again, baby." He told me. I nodded. I knew that.

"Am I a bad person?" I asked him. "For being so selfish?"

"No." He said. "No you're not."

We lay there like that for a bit, until Carol came by to tell us breakfast was ready. I'd composed myself by then and other than my eyes being slightly red, there was no sign I'd been crying. I help my Dad into an old camp chair and got him a plate of eggs.

"You're a good girl." He told me when I handed it to him.

"I try." I said. I got my own plate and sat on the ground beside him to eat.

"Uh, guys?" Glenn had gotten up and was pacing around. "So…um…the barns full of walkers…"

I looked up, almost expecting him to tag a "just kidding!" on the end. He didn't. I sat my plate down in the dirt and looked up at my Dad.

"What are you talking about?" Rick said after several beats of silence.

Glenn sighed. "I think it's better if I just show you."

And so, we all trooped to the barn, breakfast lying forgotten behind us. When we got there, I realized that this was the closest I'd been to the old building. If you listened closely, you could hear them in there.

Shane walked up to the door and peered through the crack for a few seconds. When he jumped back, startled, I knew that Glenn was telling the truth.

"You cannot tell me you're all right with this!" Shane snarled at Rick.

"No, I'm not, but we're guest here!" Rick told him. "This isn't our land!"

I clung to my Dad. I was afraid. There were walkers in there…only yards from where we'd been sleeping. I'd thought we were safe…but we weren't. We never would be again.

"Oh God, this is our lives, man!" Shane snapped.

"Lower your voice!" Glenn pleaded.

"We can't just sweep this under the rug!" Andrea said to Rick.

"This isn't right!" Shane said. "It just ain't right! Either we go in there and we make things right, or we just go. Now we've been talking about Fort Benning for a long time-."

"We can't go!" Rick interrupted.

"Why Rick?" Shane asked. "Why?"

"Because my daughter is still out there." Carol said.

"Okay, okay." Shane laughed a little and rubbed his temples. "I think its time that we all start to just consider the other possibility."

"Shane, we're not leaving Sophia behind!" Rick said.

"I'm close to findin' this girl!" Dad butted in. "I just found her damn doll two days ago!"

Shane laughed again. "You found her damn doll, Daryl, that's what you did. _You found a doll_."

"You don't know what the hell you're talkin' about!"

"I'm just saying what needs to be said here!" Shane shot back. "And let me tell you something else, man. If she was alive out there and saw you comin', all methed out with your buck knife and geek ears around your neck, she'd run in the other direction!"

I sucked in my breath. "Don't you dare talk to my Daddy like that!" I shouted, but no one heard me. They were too busy trying to pull my Dad off Shane.

Everyone was shouting and it was confusing and scary. Rick finally managed to get them apart, with a little help from Lori and Andrea and the others. I took my Dad's hand again. He looked down at me and tried to smile, tried to reassure me.

"Its okay, I'm fine." He said in a quiet voice. I shook my head.

"He shouldn't have said those things to you." I said. "He shouldn't have…I mean, you're not…" I trailed off, unsure of how to finish. Dad squeezed my shoulder.

"I've heard worse." He said.

"Let me just talk to Herschel!" Rick was saying. "Let me figure it out!"

"Man, what're you gonna figure out?!" Shane yelled and I jumped. My Dad's hand found my shoulder again.

"If we're gonna stay, if we're gonna clear this barn, I have to talk him into it!" Rick said. "This is his land!"

"Herschel see's those things as people!" Dale said. "Sick people! His wife, his stepson, are in there!"

"You knew?" Rick asked.

"Yesterday, I talked to Herschel." Dale explained.

"And you waited the night?" Shane demanded to know.

"I thought we could survive one more night!" Dale snapped. "We did! I was waiting till this morning to say something, but Glenn wanted to be the one."

"The man is crazy, Rick!" Shane argued. "If Herschel thinks those things are alive…"

And all the yelling and shouting had finally got the attention of the walkers in the barn, because they started rattling the doors, trying to break the chains. I felt my heart drop to my knees and sail back up to my throat.

"Daddy." I whimpered and he hugged me to him.

"Its all right." He said. "They're locked in there."

"I'm scared." I said.

"I'm takin' my girl back up to our tent." My Dad said loudly and the group turned to look at us. "She's scared and I'm takin' her."

He took my hand then and pulled me away from them. I was trembling, I realized as we walked away.

"Some damn birthday." I muttered.

"Don't cuss." He told me automatically, but I could tell his heart wasn't really in it. He left me in the tent and I'm not sure where he went. I didn't see him for awhile.

I lay down on my cot, trying to stop shaking. It wasn't just the walkers in the barn, or the cruel things Shane had said to Dad, it was this whole reality. I was sick of it and there was no escaping it. None. This was the rest of my life.

* * *

I'm not sure how long I lay there, I may have even fell asleep for a bit, but the next thing I knew, Carl was talking to me.

"You wanna come to my tent and help me with my English?" He was asking. "I mean, you made all those flashcards…"

"Yeah." I said, sitting up and rubbing my eyes. "Yeah, I do."

So we did.

We sat on his cot in their tent and I worked with him for awhile.

"Its confusing." He said after a little bit. "There's so many to learn."

"Well, we got time." I told him. "Hell, we don't have anything but time anymore."

He smiled. "I'm sorry." He said.

"About what?"

"I'm sorry you're birthday got ruined."

I shrugged. "Ain't your fault." I replied. He shook his head.

"I know, but…"

I looked at him. "I'm fourteen and I've never kissed a boy." I said.

"I know, we had this discussion before." He told me.

"I want to kiss you." I said. "I wanna see what it feels like. Is that okay?"

His cheeks were red, but he nodded. We leaned together and our lips met. It was…weird. Not like they show it in the movies or describe it in books. There were no violins or fireworks. Just Carl's lips and mine, the slight smell of sweat and flowers. It was nice.

"What the hell is this?"

Carl and I jumped apart; Lori was standing the flap.

"What's going on in here?" She asked, looking at both of us.

"Uh…" Carl and I were both at a loss for words.

"Come on." She said. Guiltily, we both followed her until she had rounded up Rick and my Dad.

"What is it?" Dad asked. Lori sighed.

"I walked into the tent, where they were supposed to be studying, and do you know what they were doing?" She asked. Dad shrugged.

"Not studying? Hell, I don't know." Something had happened, I could tell. He had an angry look on his face.

"They were_ kissing_." She told him. My Dad blinked.

"What?"

She nodded. "Yep."

Rick was looking at us too. "Let's not fly off the handle here." He said.

"It was my idea." I said quickly. "We just wanted to see what it was like."

"Yeah." Carl agreed.

"Well?" Rick asked. "What was it like?"

I looked at Carl and he looked at me. "Wet." He said.

"It was weird." I told them. "Not bad weird, but like…not like they say in the books. No fireworks or anything."

They all three stared at us for a few seconds, and then Lori shook her head. She was almost smiling. "Go on, you two." She said. "And keep your lips to yourself!"

Carl and I walked away, but after a few seconds we snuck back.

"Totally natural." Rick was saying. "They're the only two close to each other's age, and they're curious."

"Yeah, well, I guess we better keep a closer eye on them." Dad said. "We don't need no…little accidents."

Lori shook her head. "I don't think we have to worry about _that_, Daryl."

"Not yet." He replied. "But give it a few years."

It wasn't overly interesting talk and apparently we weren't in any kind of trouble, so Carl and I wondered off again.

"What did your Dad mean by_ little accidents_?" He asked. I looked at him and raised my eyebrows.

"Babies." I said. His face flamed.

"Oh." He paused. "He thinks that in a couple of years, we'll be…doing_ that_?"

"Yeah." I said. "I guess so."

"What do you think?" Carl asked. I shrugged.

"I think, if we're lucky enough to live that long, who knows what might happen."


	27. Chapter Twenty-Seven

**Auhtors Note's: Two chapters in one day? How kick ass am I? BUH-GEE! I'm awesome!**

* * *

I was lying on my cot when my Dad came in. I didn't turn to look at him and he didn't say anything to me.

I heard him groan and lay down. He was supposed to be taking it easy, but he wasn't. I knew he wasn't.

"So…kissin' boys now, are we?" His voice broke the silence.

"I am." I replied, still not looking at him. "Don't know what the hell you're up to."

"Don't you dare talk to me like that." He said. "I'm your father; you _will_ show me respect."

Now I did turn. "Herschel said for you to take it easy." I said to him. "Why are you trying to sneak off and look for Sophia?"

"How'd you know…_Carol_." He spit her name. "Damn that woman, can't she keep her mouth shut?"

"She didn't want to tell me." I said. "I found her crying in her tent. What'd you say to her? You called her a bitch, didn't you? She told me." I shook my head, completely disgusted with him. "I can't even look at you."

"Liberty…" He said. "I didn't mean…"

"Doesn't matter." I stood up. "All she's tried to do is help you and for you to turn on her like that…for the first time in my life I'm ashamed of you. I'm ashamed to be your child. You're acting like the redneck they all think you are, and it makes me _sick._"

"Libby!" He said, but I wasn't having any of it.

I walked out. I'd never been so mad at him, at anyone, in my whole life.

I stomped off across the yard, not even looking where I was going. And when I looked up I saw Glenn and Maggie kissing. I mean, they were really kissing, not the tentative kiss that Carl and I had shared. I coughed and they broke apart, both of them looking at me.

"Sorry." I said. Glenn grinned.

"It's okay." He said. "I heard you and Carl traded some earlier."

I blushed and Maggie grinned. "You and Carl, huh?"

"Does everyone know?" I asked and Glenn nodded.

"Pretty much. Everyone's awing over how cute it is and how you two will probably end up married." He said,

I snorted and Maggie looked at me closer. "You all right, hon?"

I nodded. "Me and my Dad had a fight." I said.

"I got into it with my Dad too." She said. She put her arm around my shoulder. "You wanna talk about it?"

I nodded and Glenn coughed. "Is this girl talk or can I be in on it too?"

Maggie looked at me and I shrugged. "I don't care." I said. "I was raised by two men; nothing embarrasses me."

The three of us began to walk towards the house together. She kept her arm over my shoulder. "Is your Dad mad about you and Carl kissing?" She asked. I shook my head.

"No, I'm mad at him." I said.

"Oh. How come?"

I sighed. "He's being a dick." I said and Glenn chuckled. I looked at him and he held up his hands.

"I'm sorry, it just sounds funny." He said. He put his hand over his mouth. "I'll be quiet, continue."

"Herschel…your Dad…told him to take it easy. Does he listen? No? He's trying to go back out this morning and look for Sophia. He's hurt! And when Carol tried to stop him, he called her a bitch." I sighed and shook my head. "He's never acted like that before."

"Your Dad, he doesn't have a lot of experience with women, does he?" Maggie asked. I shook my head again.

"No…just Skyla." I answered. "They grew up together, Daddy was in love with her for years, but he would never tell her. She died, when this all started. And then there was my Mom, but I don't know the story behind that." I said. "She was mad at my other Dad, Merle, and something was going on with my real Dad and they just…ended up having sex, I guess. And then there was me."

Maggie and Glenn were both quiet for a few seconds. "Well, I think you Dad and Carol are working things out." Glenn said after a few seconds. He pointed and I followed with my gaze.

My Dad was standing outside Carol's tent. They were talking, she was smiling and then they walked off together.

"I hope he's apologizing." I said. "For being such a jerkwad."

"Seems like he is." Maggie said. "Come on, let's go sit on the porch and see what everyone else is doing."

Lori, Patricia, and Carl were playing checkers. I sat on the steps with Glenn and Maggie.

"You still have that guitar?" I asked Glenn.

"I sure do." He said. "Why?"

I shrugged. "I was thinking of teaching myself to play it. You think I could?"

"Of course." He said. Maggie nodded.

"You could be like Bonnie Raitt or Joni Mitchell." She said.

"Except I can't sing." I sighed. "I'd be more like Louise Post."

Two blanks looks.

"She's the lead guitarist for Veruca Salt?" I ventured. Still, blank looks. I sighed. "Never mind."

Glenn got the guitar for me and I sat there on the porch, messing with it. I knew a little bit, my Dad had a friend who played, and I was trying to remember the chords. It was hard and it hurt my fingers, but I finally hit one that sounded right.

"How's that?" I asked Maggie. She nodded.

"Sounds good." She grinned and Glenn and snatched Dale's hat off his head. "Go get your hat, I'll wash it for you, okay?"

He stood, but before he could get anywhere, T-Dog and Andrea had come up.

"Do you know what's going on?" T-Dog asked.

"Where is everyone?" Andrea followed.

Glenn shook his head. "You haven't seen Rick?"

"He went off somewhere with Herschel." Andrea told him. "We were supposed to leave a couple of hours ago."

"Yeah, you were." The sound of my Dad's voice had my head flying up. He was walking up with Carol. "What the hell?"

I sat the guitar aside and walked quietly to him. "I'm sorry." I said. He ruffled my hair.

"Me too."

Carol smiled at us; I had a feeling she and Dad had _discussed_ me when they were out walking. She turned back to the group. "Rick told us he was going out." She said.

"Damn it!" Dad said. "Isn't anybody taking this seriously? We got us a damn trail!" He indicated towards the woods. I went back up on the porch and picked up my guitar.

I could see Shane in the distance, he was walking up.

"Here we go." Dad said. "What's all this?" He asked Shane, who was carrying a shit ton of guns.

"You with me?" Shane asked, handing him a rifle or some other big gun. "You got that sweet girl of yours to think about, you gonna protect her?"

"Yeah." Dad said, cocking the gun.

"Time to grow up." Shane said. He looked at Andrea. "You already got yours?"

"Yeah," She said. "Where's Dale?"

"He's on his way." Shane said. T-Dog took the gun he was handed.

"I thought we couldn't carry?" He asked.

"Yeah, well, we can and we have to." Shane answered. He turned to look at the rest of us. "Hey, it was one thing for us to be sittin' around; pickin' daisies when we thought this place was safe. Now we know it ain't." He looked at Glenn. "How about you, man? You gonna protect yours?" Glenn took the gun and Shane nodded. "That's it." He looked at Maggie. "Can you shoot?"

"Can you stop?" Maggie asked. "You do this, you hand out these guns, and my Dad will make you leave tonight."

"We have to stay, Shane." Carl said. He was standing behind me and he put his hand on my shoulder.

"What is this?" Lori asked, coming over. I sat the guitar down and stood up.

Shane looked at Carl and then he looked at me. "We ain't goin' anywhere, okay? Herschel, he's just gotta understand. He's just gonna have to." Shane knelt down in front of me and Carl. "We need to find Sophia, am I right?" He handed a gun Carl and a gun to me, little ones, the ones we'd learned to shoot just a few days before. "Now, I want you both to take these. Go on and take the gun, Carl, and you keep your mother safe. You know how."

I glanced at my Dad, he nodded and I took the gun from Shane. Carl started too, but Lori was there before he could.

"This isn't the way," She said. "Rick said no guns; this isn't your call to make!"

"Oh shit." T-Dog said and everyone looked.

I held my gun loosely in my hand, the way Shane had showed me the day before. In the distance, I could see Jimmy and Rick and they were leading a walker, just leading it like it was a dog or something.

"What is that?" Shane muttered. "What is that?"

Then the group of men were running. I looked at Carl, and before Lori could stop us, we were running too, through the gate and towards the barn, where they were taking the walkers.

But Lori's legs were longer than either of ours and she caught us before we'd reached the others. She took Carl by one hand and me by the other, and for a second I thought she was going to march us back up the hill, but she didn't. She just held on to us.

"You put that gun away now." She told me and I stuck it in the back of my shorts.

"Hey, Herschel, let me ask you something?" Shane was saying when we reached the group. "A living breathing person, could they walk away from this?" And he shot the female walker Rick had in the chest.

"Stop it!" Rick told him, but Shane ignored him.

"That's three rounds in the chest!" He said. "Could someone who is alive, could they just take that? Why is that thing still coming?" he shot again. "That's its heart, its lungs! Why is it still coming?"

He shot again.

"That's enough, Shane!" Rick roared.

My grip tightened on Lori's hand and she pulled me and Carl to her.

"Yeah, you're right man!" Shane said. "That is enough." He came forward and shot the female in the head. "Enough risking our lives for a little girl who's gone! Enough living next to a barn full of things that are tryin' to kill us! Rick, it ain't like it was before! Now if y'all wanna live, if you wanna survive, you gotta fight for it! I'm talking about fighting, right here, right now!"

And he ran forward and began to break the lock on the barn. Rick was trying to get Herschel to take the snare pole. And me? I was trying to keep my lunch down. I felt like I was going to vomit right there in the dirt in front of everyone.

I didn't though, and Lori was shoving me and Carl behind her. I was clutching Carl and I could feel his hands wrapped around me. And walkers, dozens of them, were pouring out of the barn. I looked; I could see my father with his rifle, shooting. I had my own gun; I knew how to shoot it, should I…?

It was as if Lori read my thoughts. "Don't even think about it." She said to me, not even moving her head. We moved closer, but Rick was yelling at us to stay back. Lori dropped in the dirt and pulled me and Carl into her, not letting us even really look.

For several seconds, it was only gunshots. That's all I heard. And then it was quiet. Lori loosened her grip on me and I was able to look up. It was just a pile of bodies, lying in front of the barn. And then the barn door moved and another was coming out. When she stepped into the sunlight, I felt my stomach drop.

It was Sophia.

I could hear Carol behind me, sobbing, calling her daughter's name as she ran forward. My Dad caught her and held her, they fell into the dirt together and Carol was crying. I was crying. Lori was hugging both me and Carl close to her and they were both crying too. I could see on Sophia's bony, wasted wrist, the friendship bracelet I had braided for her weeks ago. I reached down and fingered the one she'd made for me.

Lori had grabbed my head and pulled it towards her. "Don't watch." She was telling me and Carl over and over. "Don't watch."

I closed my eyes, the bile rising in my throat again. And when I heard the single gunshot and Carol wailing out loud, I leaned over in the dirt and vomited.

"Don't look." Dad was telling Carol the same thing. He helped her to his feet, but she shoved him away and took off. I threw up again.

"Libby." I heard his strangled voice and he was lifting me off the ground, out of the dirt, and holding me on his hip like he did was I was a baby.

I was crying so hard I couldn't see clearly. He held me to him and there was dirt, blood, snot, and vomit on his shirt. "Her bracelet." I cried to him. "Get me the bracelet I made for her."

Someone, who I would later discover was Shane, snapped the yarn and bead bracelet I had made off her wrist. I felt it being pressed into my hand. I clutched it and my father held me there, even though my legs hung halfway down his body, he held me in his arms like I was a small child again.

* * *

**Authors Note's: I seriously cried as I was writing this, I kid you not. It was sad!**


	28. Chapter Twenty-Eight

When I awoke this time, it wasn't like the last time. My Dad wasn't hunched over my sickbed, worried about me. He was no where in sight and I was alone. I looked around. I was lying on the bed in Dale's RV and I was alone. I looked down at myself, still wearing the tank top, crusted with dried snot and vomit. There was vomit in my hair, even. I pushed myself up from the bed and saw where someone had left me a clean shirt and some soap. Then I walked down to the water pump.

I pulled off my shirt and stood there in only my bra and shorts and went about washing my hair. When I was sure that all traces of dirt, blood, vomit, and snot were out of it, I turned off the water and straightened up. I was surprised to see Shane standing there. He wasn't looking at me, not really. His face was slightly red and his eyes were lowered.

"What?" I asked, wringing out my long hair. "Ain't you never seen a woman in her bra before?"

"A woman I've seen." He said. "You're just a kid."

I snorted. "Then why do I feel like I'm a hundred fucking years old?" I put my still wet hair back in a loose braid and pulled the clean shirt on. "I'm decent now, Deputy Do-Right, you can look."

"I just ain't aiming to have your Daddy find you like that and think I'm some pervert." He said. "I don't want my head bashed in."

"I don't even know where he is." I said. I reached in my pocket and pulled out Sophia's bracelet, and tied it on. "You were the one who got this for me, weren't you?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yeah."

I looked up at him. "Thank you."

I walked away from Shane and the pump then, my dirty shirt crumpled in my hand and my hair dripping down my back.

* * *

When I got back too our little campsite, I was surprised to find our tent gone.

"Where's our tent?" I asked Dale.

"Your Dad came stomping in here about a little bit ago and took it down." He answered. "He moved it out by that old chimney."

"Thanks." I said. I sighed and headed out to where I could now see he had put it.

"What the hell are you doing?" I asked him when I walked up.

"Makin' a sandwich." He replied sarcastically. "What's it look like I'm doing? I'm sick and damn tired of being surrounded by all these damn people."

"Why?"

"Don't worry about it!" He snapped. "Stop askin' a bunch of stupid damn questions and help me."

"No." I shook my head. I'd never bucked him before; I'd always done what I was told. But not this. Never this.

He turned his head to look at me. "What did you say to me?"

"I said, no." I told him raising my voice. "I know what you're doing and I'm not going to be a part of it."

"You'll do what I tell you to do." He replied. "Now get your ass over here and help me."

I shook my head again. He dropped what he was doing and grabbed my arm.

"Don't you tell me no!" He shouted. "I'm your damn father! You show me respect!"

"You're hurting me!" I shouted back at him. I'd never raised my voice to him before. "Let me go!" I managed to wrench my arm from his grasp. "What's the matter with you?"

"I'll tell you what's the matter with me!" His voice had a deadly, hoarse sound to it. "I'm sick and fucking tired of playing errand boy to everybody else! That little girl wasn't my problem and I almost got myself killed for it!"

"Yeah, well, I_ am_ your problem!" I snapped at him. "I'm your daughter, remember?"

"I didn't ask for that!" H snapped and it hit me like a slap in the face.

"I know." I said. "You think I don't know what I am? An _accident_?_ A mistake_? I didn't ask to be born! Why didn't you cover it up before you fucked my mother behind Merle's back?!"

I turned then and I ran away. I ran past the campsite, past the house. I ran until I couldn't run anymore, and then I sat in the tall grass and I cried.

* * *

It was dark by the time I made my way up to the campsite.

"Honey, were you out there alone?" Carol asked me. I nodded.

"Yeah. Me and my Dad got into a fight." I looked up into her kind face. She'd lost her daughter today, her only child, and here she was worrying about me. "I don't wanna move out there with him."

"Let me talk to him." She said. "I'm gonna try to get him to come back here with the rest of us."

"And if he doesn't?"

"Then you can stay in my tent." She answered. "For now."

I sat down in an empty chair. No one else was around; I wondered what was going on now. I watched as Carol walked across the dark field to look for my Dad. I sighed, content to sit there and stew in my own misery, but I didn't get to. A car pulled up and I realized it was Shane's. He and Lori got out of it and everyone was hurrying from the house towards them.

"I'm fine." I could hear Lori say. "Just an accident. Where's Rick?"

Everyone kind of looked at her. "He's not back?" She asked. She looked to Shane.

"I had to tell you something to get you back here." He said. She glared at him.

"You asshole."

"Lori, I had to look after you and the baby."

This caught my attention. A baby? Was Lori having a baby?

"You're having a baby?" Carl echoed my thoughts. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Let's just make sure you're okay." Dale told her.

I sat there for a few minutes and then walked over to Carl.

"Hey." I said. "Heard you were getting a sibling. Congrats."

He grinned. "Thanks." He said. "Where were you? I was looking everywhere."

"I just wanted to be alone." I said. "But I feel better now."

And we went into the house together.

I sat with him on the front porch a little while later, after the adults practically ran us from the room.

"Can I ask you something?" He said. I shrugged.

"Sure, I guess. What?"

"My Mom says we never had 'The Talk'." He said. "Have you already had it?"

I nodded. "Yeah, me and Skyla had it last year after I got my period for the first time."

"Well, can you explain it me?" He asked. "I have a feeling my Dad is gonna gloss over the details and I wanna know."

I sighed. "It's like this, Carl. A man and woman have sex, his sperm fertilizes the egg in her body and that makes a baby."

He blinked. "That's it?"

I shrugged. "Well, I guess when you actually _do it_, it's more complicated than that, but that's the basis of it."

"Oh." He said. "So my Mom and Dad, they….?"

"Yeah."

"Ew." He giggled at little. "Gross."

And I giggled too. "I know, right? Like I don't understand the appeal of it. Why would you want someone doing _that_ to you? It seems so nasty."

"I guess…when you love someone…" He trailed off.

I thought of my parents. My mother, sleeping with her boyfriend's younger brother, just to get back at him, and my Dad, sleeping with his big brother's girlfriend, trying to fill some kind of need in his life.

"But what about when you don't love them?" I asked. "What makes you do it then?"

He shrugged. "I don't know."

I squeezed his hand. "Me either."

* * *

I did sleep in Carol's tent that night. I walked out to where my Dad was to get some of my things. He saw me coming and he stood.

"Libby…"

"I'm not talking to you." I said. "I'm staying the night with Carol and I'm not talking to you."

I gathered a few things and walked away from him. I was trying not to cry, trying so very hard not to cry. He didn't come after me and I didn't expect him to.

Early the next morning, they had decided to go get Rick, Glenn, and Herschel. I was surprised, when I came out of Carol's tent, to see my Dad was in on it. Some of my anger at him had cooled overnight, but I still wasn't ready to give in yet.

I was sitting in an old camp chair, pretending to read a book when he came over and knelt in front of me.

"Still not talking to me?" He asked.

"Nope." I said.

"Then what was that?"

I glared at him over the top of my book. "That was me telling you that I'm still pissed."

"You're gettin' a little loose with the cusswords, ain't you?" He asked. I shrugged.

"Don't see why you care." I said. "With me being a_ mistake_ and all."

"Now, I never said that, Liberty!"

"You didn't have to."

He snatched the book out of my hands and threw it in the dirt. "Put that goddamned thing down and talk to me!"

"I don't think there's anything to talk about." I told him. "You made it pretty clear that you never wanted me."

"Oh yeah?" He asked. "If I never wanted you, then why'd I stick around? I could've left soon as I was eighteen and I didn't. I stayed…for you. I spent fourteen damn years busting my back at a job I hated in a town where everyone looked down on me, to make sure you was takin' care of right. You just remember that, girly."

He walked away and I looked to see Andrea, standing there awkwardly.

"Guess I just got told, huh?" I asked. She nodded.

"I'd say you did."

* * *

**Authors Note's: I'm not overly crazy about this chapter, but there's more to come. I think that this story has less than ten chapters to go before its done! And then: on to the next one!**


	29. Chapter Twenty-Nine

I was laying the sun the next morning. In my old life, I wasn't the type of girl who sunbathed, but now, after months of living outside, I'd turned that wonderfully golden brown color I'd always seen my father's skin turn…and I liked it. So I lay in the sun in the teeniest pair of shorts and tank top I could find, reading a V.C. Andrews book.

Okay, I'll admit, the skimpy clothes were just to get under my Dad's skin. I still wasn't talking to him and he hadn't said anything else to me either, but he had given me a hard look when I stepped out of Carol's tent.

Carl was sitting with me. He wasn't reading, just lying on his back, staring at the sky.

"Libby?" I looked up from my book, for a half a second hoping it was my Dad. It wasn't though, it was Rick and Shane.

"What's up?" I asked, sitting up.

"We kinda need a favor." Rick said. "You have an MP3 player, don't you? I've seen you listening to it from time to time."

"Yeah," I said. "I've been trying to save the charge until I can get another battery. Why?"

"We need to borrow it." Shane said. "We'll bring it back."

"And some batteries, too." Rick added. "Enough to last you for awhile."

"All right." I nodded and Carl helped me to my feet. "Let me get it."

They followed me back up across the field to my Dad's tent, where most of my stuff was. I dug around in my bag, but couldn't find it.

"Where's my MP3 player?" I demanded of my father, not even looking at him.

"How the hell should I know?" He asked. "I didn't touch the damn thing!"

"What'd you do with it?" I asked him.

"Dammit, Liberty, I didn't do nothing with it!" He paused. "Did you check the side pocket of your duffle? I thought I saw you put it in there."

I went back in the tent and check the side pocket, and sure enough, there it was. I went back out and handed it to Rick.

"Please be careful with it." I said to him. "It was a Christmas gift from my…it was a gift."

He smiled. "I'll guard it with my life. Thanks, Libby."

I nodded. "Yep, no problem."

"You gonna apologize?" My Dad asked after they were gone.

"_Sorry_." I said coldly, without even looking at him.

"Liberty Belle, when are you gonna forgive me?" He demanded.

"I will when you move back to the camp." I replied and began to walk away.

"You need to put some damn clothes on!" He hollered after me. "You look like a street walker!"

"What part of _we're not talking_ do you not understand?!" I screamed back at him.

"The part where you keep talking to me!" He shot back loudly.

I stomped back up to the house. Carl was waiting for me on the steps.

"Uh, let's not go in there." He said, standing.

"Why not?" I asked.

"It's crazy in there." He said. "Beth wants to kill herself."

"_What_?" This drove all angry thoughts of my Dad from my mind. "Is she okay?"

"Yeah, she's fine." He said. "Mom and Andrea are fighting, though."

"Great." I sighed. "Well, where do you wanna go hang out?"

"Over by the tents." He said. "You can practice the guitar some more."

I was bound and determined I was going to learn. I'd picked up a few more chords that sounded right and Patricia had given me an old book of Otis's that taught you to play.

The songs in were old, like Bob Dylan and Neil Young songs, but that was okay. I was teaching myself to play Heart of Gold, a song I remembered Merle listening to from time to time.

"You're doing pretty good with learnin' that aren't you?"

I looked up to see Patricia coming across the yard. She was smiling at me.

"You think so?" I asked. "I'm trying."

"Yeah, you're doing good." She told me. She looked at Carl. "I need to dig out Otis's old harmonica; maybe you could learn to play it."

"That'd be cool." Carl said.

"Come on up to the house with me." She said. "We'll find it."

So we did.

I'd never been in Patricia's bedroom. It was like Otis still lived there though, I thought. Some of his clothes were still hanging on the back of the door. She knelt by an old, pine trunk at the foot of her bed and began to dig through it.

"Here we go." She handed Carl a dusty mouth organ. "Wash that up a bit before you use it."

"Thanks." He said. She smiled, a little sadly.

"You're welcome."

Lori and Andrea were still arguing in the kitchen, so Carl and I walked down to the water pump to clean the harmonica up.

"We can play duets now." I joked.

Carl sighed. "If only one of us could carry a tune." He said.

"Beth sings." I remembered. "She told me right after we first came here that she was in her high school choir."

"Hmm." Carl started working the pump. "Why am I picturing like, an episode of Glee or something?"

I giggled. "Did you watch Glee?" I asked. "I mean, before?"

"No, but my Mom did." He replied. "I miss TV. I miss SpongeBob and Family Guy."

"The Big Bang Theory." I added as I began to rinse the dust of the harmonica. "Two and a Half Men."

"Criminal Minds." Carl said. He took it from me and dried it on his shirt. "Me and my Dad watched that together."

"Ohh, that's a good one."

He gave the mouth organ an experimental blow. "What do you think?"

"I think we should go practice some more if you want it to sound right."

And that's how we spent the rest of the morning, up until about mid-afternoon when Rick and Shane came back. I sat the guitar aside and Carl put down the harmonica.

"Libby," Rick called to me. "Can you run and see if your Daddy is at his tent? We need his help with something." And then they opened the back hatch of the SUV and I saw that the guy was still in there.

"Sure." I said. I jogged across the field to my Dad's little campsite. "Dad, you here?"

He was gutting some squirrels. "Right here." He said.

"Rick sent me to get you." I said, looking at the ground. "He says they need your help."

Dad sighed. "Course they do. Whenever anyone needs anything, they run to ol' Daryl. Well, I'm gettin' kinda tired of it."

"They still got that guy with them." I told him. "The one they were supposed to be takin' care of. He's still with them."

This time my Dad looked at me and I looked right back. "You sure?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I saw him myself. He has a bag over his face."

"All right." He wiped his buck knife on his pant leg. "Let's go."

We walked back across the field together and my Dad dropped his arm over my shoulders. I let him keep it there.

* * *

They wanted my Dad to torture information out of this guy. Oh, Rick didn't come right out and say it like that, but that was the gist of it.

"Why him?" I asked the next morning. I knew, as a child, I was supposed to keep my mouth shut and do as I was told, but I felt like I had a right to know. "Why my Dad, why not Shane…or…or…"

Rick knelt in front of me. "You want the truth?"

I nodded. "Of course."

"Because, to a stranger, hell even to those of us who know him, your Daddy is one scary fucker." He said and I couldn't help but smile. I looked up at my Dad, whose lips twitched.

"You'll be careful?" I asked. He nodded.

"Thought you was mad at me?"

"I am. Doesn't mean I want anything to happen to you." I hugged him fleetingly. "But I'm still pissed."

He sighed. "We're gonna have a talk about your new vocabulary later." He said. I sighed.

"Fine."

* * *

"So what are you gonna do?" Lori asked as we all sat around the campfire a little later. "I think we'd all feel a little better if we knew the plan."

"Is there a plan?" Andrea asked.

"Are we gonna keep him here?" Glenn added.

"We'll know soon enough." He nodded and we all turned to see my Daddy coming back towards us. His knuckles were bloody and it made my stomach turn over.

"Boy there's got a gang." He said. "Thirty men. They got heavy artillery and they ain't lookin' to make friends. They roll through here, our boys are dead. And our women…they're gonna wish they were." His eyes settled on me.

I'd gone from the skimpy shorts and tank top to a pair of capri's and a t-shirt. I was trying to hang on to my mad, but it was slipping away. I went to him and hugged him again.

"What did you do?" Carol asked him. He looked down. His eyes were on me, I could feel them.

"Had a little chat." He said. He started to walk back towards his camp sight and I followed him.

"Are you hungry?" I asked him. "Want me to fix you a little something?"

He nodded. "I could eat." He glanced at me. "This mean we're talkin' again?"

"Yeah." I said, giving in. "We're talkin' again."

I fried some of the squirrel meat for him, like I'd been taught. Carol had been showing me how to cook and I was apparently a quick study at it, because he cleared his plate and asked for more.

"Is it good?" I asked and he nodded.

"Real good." He said. "Where'd you learn to do this?"

"Carol taught me." I said. "She said I needed to know how, you know, in case…" I trailed off and he nodded.

"She's right."

We didn't talk about our fight or about our feelings or anything like that. We weren't that kind of a family.

"I think I'm gonna keep staying with Carol." I told him while he ate his second plate of food. "If that's okay? She needs me more than you do right now."

"Libby, you can't replace her daughter, you know that don't you?" He asked. I nodded.

"I know, but I like being around her." I said. "She's the kind of Mom I wish I'd had."

He looked at me over the tin cup of water he was drinking. "Don't be gettin' no ideas."

I held up my hands. "I'm not!"

He gave me another Look. "You better not be."

* * *

**Authors Note's: I think, with Daryl having a young, cute, teenage daughter, that what Randall told him about his group raping those girls may have hit home even more. Just a thought. Now, here's a question, something that came to me and I'm thinking on. What would you all think of a Daryl/Beth story? She'd be a little older, or course, but I'm just curious. Would you guys read something like that? Let me know!**


	30. Chapter Thirty

And so, my Dad and I had made up.

I spent the morning with him up at his camp. We didn't talk much, but we sat together, side by side in the shade of the giant tree, while he carved arrows and I read a book. It felt almost like old times. We just needed Skyla to swing in and make a crude joke and cause my Dad to turn red.

"I'm sorry." I said after a while. "I acted like a brat and I'm sorry."

"Me too." He replied. We didn't look at each other, he was still concentrating on his arrows and I on my book. "I flew off the handle and I didn't need to. I said things I didn't mean."

"You don't regret me being born?" I asked. He sighed and sat the arrow down.

"Of course not." He put his arm around me. "Libby, I_ love_ you. You're my girl; the best thing I ever done was you. You wasn't a _mistake_. A surprise, maybe, but not a mistake."

"Okay." I said. I put my head against his shoulder. "But you won't think about moving back down to camp?"

He shook his head and sighed. "I…I don't know."

And we lapsed back into silence.

He was getting ready to go out hunting when Dale came up.

Dad sighed. "The reason I came up here was to get away from you people." He said.

Dale chuckled a little. "Its gonna take more than that." He said.

"Carol send you?" Dad asked. I pretended I was still interested in Flowers in the Attic, but I was totally listening to every word.

"Carol's not the only one that's concerned about you." Dale told him. "Your new _"role"_ in the group."

Dad sighed again and shook his head. "Man, I don't need my head shrunk." He said, continuing to pack his hunting supplies. "This group's broken. I'm better off fending for me and my girl myself."

"You act like you don't care." Dale said.

Dad looked at him and raised his eyebrows. "Yeah? That's 'cause I don't."

"So live or die, you don't care what happens to Randall?"

"Nope." Dad swung his jacket over his shoulder.

"Then why not stand with me?" Dale asked. "Try to save the kid's life; if it really doesn't matter one way or another."

Dad looked at him and shook his head. "I wouldn't have pegged you for a desperate son-of-a-bitch." He told him.

"You opinion makes a difference."

"Shit, ain't nobody but that girl there lookin' to me for nothing." Dad replied, pointing to me.

"Carol is." Dale argued. "And I am right now. And you obviously have Rick's ear."

Dad, who'd bent to kiss my cheek and had been about to head out, spun around. "Rick just looks to Shane. Let him."

"You cared about what happened to Sophia." Dale said. "And it's obvious to anyone with eyes that you'd do anything for your daughter. You cared what it meant to the group. Torturing people? That isn't you! You're a decent man! So is Rick. Shane…he's different."

"Why's that?" Dad asked. "'Cause he killed Otis?"

I looked up. "He did?"

Dad looked at me. "You don't go repeatin' nothing that's being said, you hear me?"

I nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Did he tell you that?" Dale asked him. Dad shrugged.

"He told some story, how Otis covered him and saved his ass. He showed up with a dead guy's gun, but he brought my girl back what she needed. I don't know why he did it, but he did." Dad paused. "Look, Rick ain't stupid. If he didn't figure it out, it's 'cause he didn't wanna. It's like I said, group's broken."

He walked off then and Dale watched him go. I stood.

"Ain't no use." I said. "Once he's in a mind set, there isn't any changing him around."

"Well, what do you think?" Dale asked.

"Me? Shoot, I'm just a kid. I don't have any say." I shrugged and we began to walk back to the camp together.

"Well, what if you did?"

Again, I shrugged. "Then I'd say, why not keep him around? He could be useful."

Dale smiled. "I knew I always liked you."

"Not like what I say matters." I told him. "I'm gonna go find Carl…see you!"

It took me little bit to find Carl, but I finally did, out sitting by Sophia's grave. I had missed the small service they'd had for her; I'd still been passed out. I was pretty angry when I realized that no one had woken me up for it, but I tried to comfort myself by spending time by her grave.

"Hey." I said, sitting down in the dirt with him. "What's up?"

"Nothing." He replied. He looked up at me from under the brim of his hat. "Guess what?"

"What?"

"I saw the guy." He said. "Randall."

"What'd you mean you_ saw_ him?"

He looked around. "I snuck into where they're keeping him."

"Sneaked." I corrected. "You sneaked in."

He looked at me. "That's what I said."

I sighed and waved my hand. "So…what's he look like?"

Carl shrugged. "Normal. I mean, he's all beat up from your Dad, but other than that he just looks like a guy. Shane caught me in there with him. I thought my ass was grass for minute, but he's not gonna tell my parents."

I thought about what Dad and Dale had said about Shane, about how he'd killed Otis to save himself. Shane had never been anything but friendly to me and he had saved my life. I wasn't sure what I thought about him.

"Did you like, talk to him?" I asked, but he shushed me because Carol was coming.

"We'll see Sophia again in heaven someday." She said to us.

I nodded, because that's what I believed too. I had to believe I'd see Sophia and Skyla again. Otherwise, it would hurt too much. Carl, however, didn't say anything.

"She's in a better place." Carol said.

Carl turned to look at her. "No, she's not." He said. He stood up. "Heaven is just another lie. And if you believe it, you're an _idiot_!"

He ran off and Carol looked like she'd been smacked in the face. We both turned when we heard voices. It was Rick and Lori. Carol marched over to them.

"You need to control that boy!" She said.

"Carl?" Rick asked. "What-?"

"He's disrespectful! He said something cruel about Sophia!"

I didn't hear the rest. I bowed my head and said a prayer at Sophia's grave, like I'd been taught was proper.

"I miss you." I told her. "Things are…weird. My Dad moved all of our stuff away from everyone else's. He says the group is broken, whatever that means. I'm afraid he's going to want to leave everyone else and go off on our own." I felt my eyes well up a little. "I'm scared, Sophia. I love my Daddy very much, but I don't want to leave everyone else. I feel safe here in this group." I paused and wiped my nose on my sleeve. "You were lucky to have a Mama like Carol.

"My Mama, she ran off when I was four. I barely remember her. My clearest memory, she's yellin' at me to tie my damn shoes and hurry up. She wasn't one of those mother's who sat up with you at night when you're sick and stuff, not like your Mom. She partied and drank with the best of them every weekend. It was my Daddy who took care of me. Only I didn't know he was my Daddy then. I thought he was just my Uncle Daryl." I sighed. "I've only known he was my Dad for a few weeks, but it feels like a lifetime. I guess since he always has been in everything but name, it was an easy transition to make."

I heard a soft noise behind me and I turned to see Carol standing there.

"I'm sorry." She said. "I just…I thought I was the only one who talked to her."

I shook my head. "No. You're not."

She came and sat beside me.

"How much did you hear?" I asked her.

"Pretty much everything." She replied. "Libby, honey, I'm not gonna let your Daddy leave, okay?"

"I don't know how you could stop him." I said. "Its like I told Dale, once he makes his mind up, there ain't any changing it. Mule headed Dixon, Skyla always said."

"Skyla was his girlfriend?" She asked. "Before this?"

I shrugged. "She was his best friend. His only real friend, I guess. They grew up together and he…he loved her, but she didn't know. I miss her." I said. "So does he."

She nodded but didn't say anything.

"I'm sorry about Carl." I told her. "I think that Sophia is in a better place. Skyla too. They have to be."

Carol touched my hair. "You're a sweet girl, has anyone ever told you that?"

I smiled. "Not recently."

"Your hair is getting straggly." She said, touching the ends. "How about you come back to the camp and I'll trim it for you."

I nodded. I spent the rest of the day with Carol. She trimmed my hair nicely and helped me put it up in a pretty bun.

"I used to have long hair like this." She told me. "But Ed…he didn't like it, so I cut it all off. My Mama, she cried when she saw me. She loved my hair." She leaned forward to whisper in my ear. "Don't ever let a man talk you in to something you don't wanna do. If he can't love you for you, he isn't worth your time."

"Like Glenn loves Maggie?" I asked and she nodded.

"Exactly like that." She said.

* * *

It was decided, and I don't know by who, that the four of us who were under eighteen would be upstairs during the discussion on what to do with Randall.

Beth was still in her bed. I'd only seen her once since she'd tried to kill herself. I felt bad for not visiting her more, she was supposed to be my friend, but I still don't understand how she could want to die. Didn't she understand how devastated her family would be?

Jimmy had brought Clue up for us to play. He was Mr. Green, I was Miss Scarlett, and Carl was Professor Plum. As we played our first round, I could hear raised voices from down below.

"What do you think they're gonna do with him?" I asked Jimmy.

"Probably kill him." He said.

"What do you think about that?" I asked. He shrugged.

"I don't know; I mean, it that's what it takes to keep our people safe…" he trailed off and we kept on playing.

Carl won the first round and no one wanted to play again, so we just kind of sat around until Lori came up and told us it had been decided. They were going to kill him.

When I got back downstairs, my Dad pulled me to the side. "I need to talk to you." He said.

"Am I in trouble?" I asked. He raised a brow.

"You do something that you _need_ to be in trouble for?"

I shook my head. "I don't think so." I looked at his face. "What's going on?"

"I'm going to be one of the ones to help…kill this kid." He said. "And I need to know that you're okay with that."

I turned it over in my mind and asked myself, if I had to choose between this guy that I didn't even know and my friends here, who would I choose? The answer was obvious.

"I am." I said. "If this is what it takes to keep our people safe…?" I echoed Jimmy. "Then do it."

He touched my face and nodded.

I sat on the around the fire a little bit later. Carol and Lori were trying to get us to eat, but no one was really hungry. I was suddenly so very, very sleepy and I yawned.

"Why don't you go on to bed, honey?" Carol said to me. I shook my head.

"Waitin' for my Dad." I said. "I want him to tuck me in tonight."

She nodded and sat beside me. It was quiet for a bit and then we heard the rustle of someone walking up. I looked to see Rick and Carl…Carl who was supposed to be in the house using the bathroom.

"We're keeping him in custody for now." Rick said. Andrea smiled.

"I'll go find Dale." She said.

I laid my head in Carol's lap. I could hear the lower murmur of voices as Rick and Lori spoke and I felt myself starting to drift off. Until we all heard screams.

Lori sent me and Carl up to the house.

"Come on, Libby!" He was pulling me along, but I wanted to turn back.

"It could be my Dad!" I told him, trying to pull away. I got my hand free of his and turned to run in the opposite direction, following the calls and shouts of everyone else.


	31. Chapter Thirty-One

Dale was dead.

I let the pain of it wash over me as I clung to my Dad during the grave side service. The wise, old man was gone. I couldn't believe it. I let the tears flow freely down my face as my Dad stroked my hair. Together, we listened to the Rick talk.

* * *

I was trying to be strong. God, was I trying. It had been decided that we were all going to move into the house. Fifteen people in one house, it was going to be tight. Patricia offered to share her room with me, but I declined. I needed to be with my Dad right then, and so, we took a corner of the dining room as ours.

"Sleeping on the floor has gotta be better than sleeping on the ground." I said.

"Not as good as sleeping in a bed." He told me. "You sure you won't take Patricia up on her offer?"

I shook my head. "No…I wanna be near you."

He nodded. "All right." And he left it at that.

I helped carry our things in. We were gonna be in the house most of the time now, no more wondering the property on our own. It made me a little sad; I'd enjoyed it.

"So, you're going with Rick?" I asked him. He nodded. "To dump this dude off somewhere?"

"Yeah."

"You'll be careful?"

Dad gave me a slight smile. "Ain't I always?"

"Yeah, but…I can't help but worry while you're gone." I told him.

He sighed. "I know it, but you don't need to be. I always come home to my girl. But I asked Carol to keep an eye on you while I'm gone."

"Okay." I said. I leaned against him.

"Hey, Libby," I turned to see Carl standing, somewhat awkwardly, behind us. "Um…my Mom said I could go keep lookout from the barn loft. You wanna go?"

I looked up at my Dad questioningly. He sighed and nodded. "Go on." He caught Carl's shoulder. "Keep her safe." He told him.

Carl nodded. "Yes, sir." He said. It was my turn to sigh.

"You think because I'm a girl, I can't look after myself?" I asked them. The two of them looked at one another.

"Yeah." They answered me in unison. I rolled my eyes and grabbed Carl's hand.

"Let's go."

* * *

I'd actually never been up in the barn loft. You could see for miles and miles.

"Hey, uh, Libby?" Carl asked. "You remember that time we kissed?"

I giggled. "Carl, that was like three days ago. Of course I remember."

"Oh yeah." He said. He looked down. "Do you wanna like, try that again?"

"Okay." I said.

We pressed our lips together again, and again, I didn't really feel anything.

"Did you feel anything this time?" I asked when we pulled away. He shook his head.

"Not really. Did you?"

I shook my head. "I don't think so."

So we just sat there quietly, taking turns with the binoculars for awhile, until we heard footsteps behind us. It was Rick.

"Thought you and my Dad were going to dump what's-his-face off?" I asked. He smiled.

"We are." He said. "I just need to talk to Carl for a minute. Alone."

"Right." I stood up and dusted the hay off the seat of my jeans. "I can take a hint. I'm going back to the house."

"No," Carl said. "Just wait down in the barn; I promised Daryl I'd watch out for you."

I sighed. "I'm not a toddler. I'll be_ fine_."

"Please, Libby?" He asked. "Wait for me?"

"Fine." I said. "But this 'women are the weaker sex' crap is getting old!"

I went down the ladder and plopped down on the floor of the barn. Okay, I knew they were all just trying to watch out for me, but God! Just because I'm a girl, they have to treat me like I'm some kind of china doll or something. It was annoying!

I sat and picked around in the hay until Rick came down.

"Watch out for my Dad, okay?" I asked him. He nodded.

"I'll watch his back." He said. "Maybe you could kinda keep Carl out of trouble for me?"

I smiled. "I'll try my best."

I went back up to the hayloft. Carl was sitting in the same spot he had been.

"What'd your Dad want?" I asked him.

"Just to talk." He said. "You know, man stuff."

It was my first instinct to laugh, but I knew that would hurt his feelings, so I held it in. Instead I slipped my hand into his and lay my head on his shoulder.

We'd only been sitting like that for maybe five minutes, when Jimmy was shouting for us.

"What is it?" I asked. "What's going on?"

"The prisoner, that guy, he escaped!" Jimmy told us. "You parents want y'all back up at the house now!"

We hurried across the field and back up to the farmhouse. Everyone was gathered around the shed where we'd been keeping Randall.

"Dad!" I said, running to him.

"I want you to keep close to me or Carol now, baby." He said. He looked at her to confirm and she nodded. "This guy, he might be dangerous."

"All right." I said. I moved in beside Carol.

"The cuffs are still hooked." Rick said. "He must've slipped them."

"Is that possible?" Carol asked.

"It is if you've got nothing to lose." Andrea told her, walking out of the shed.

"Rick! Rick!" Shane's voice came from the wooded area to our left. He came running out, his face a bloody mess.

"What happened?" Lori asked.

"He's armed!" Shane told us. "He's got my gun!"

"Are you okay?" Carl asked him in concern.

"I'm fine," Shane said. "The little bastard just snuck up on me; clocked me in the face."

"All right," Rick swung into action. "Herschel, you and T-Dog get everybody back in the house! Glenn, Daryl, come with us."

"Daddy!" I pulled away from Carol and ran to him. He gave me a quick hug and swung his crossbow over his shoulder.

"You go on now, and mind Carol." He told me. "I'll be back soon."

"Just let him go." Carol said. "That was the plan, right? To just let him go?"

"The plan was to cut him loose far away from here." Rick said. "Not on our front steps with a gun."

"Don't go out there, y'all know what can happen!" She called after them.

"Get everyone back in the house!" Rick said. "Lock all the doors and stay put!"

I put my hand in Carol's and allowed Andrea to take us to the house. "Come on, let's go." She said.

"He'll be fine." I told Carol. "Daddy always comes back."

I knew it was him she was worried about, just like me. She smiled at me.

"I know he does."

Once we were in the house there was nothing to do but wait.

* * *

I sat by one of the boarded up windows with a word search book Herschel had given me.

"I figured you might like something to keep your mind busy." He said. I took the pencil he was offering too.

"Yeah, thank you."

Carol sat with me and we did word searches. She was good at finding them and these were the fun ones, where you were finding movie titles and things you might take to the beach. It kept our minds busy, and from worrying, for awhile.

After several hours, though, even that got boring and so it was back to Carol pacing and me sitting by the window chewing my nails, a habit I'd long ago dropped.

"I'm going after them." Andrea said finally.

"No," Lori told her. "If Randall comes back, we'll need you here."

She barely had the words out of her mouth when Dad and Glenn came in. I sat up eagerly on the couch. He didn't look hurt; neither of them did.

"Rick and Shane ain't back yet?" He asked. He came to me and kissed my head. "We heard a shot."

"Maybe they found Randall." Lori said.

"We found him." Dad told her. I'd stood up and went to him, wrapping my arms around his middle.

"Is he back in the shed?" Maggie asked.

"He's a walker."

"Well, did you find the walker that bit him?" Herschel wanted to know.

"No," Glenn said. He looked around nervously. "The weird thing is, he wasn't bit."

"His neck was broke." Dad added.

"So he fought back?" Patricia wondered.

Dad sighed and stroked the top of my head. "The thing is, Shane and Randall's tracks were right on top of each other." He told us. "And Shane ain't no tracker, so he didn't come up behind him. No, they were together."

"Would you please get back out there and find Rick and Shane?" Lori asked him. "Find out what on Earth is going on."

Dad nodded. He kissed my forehead. "You got it." He said. Lori touched his arm.

"Thank you." She said to him. She came and sat beside me on the couch and took my hand.

We'd been sitting there only a few seconds when Dad and Glenn came back in.

"Y'all…y'all need to see this." Dad told us. Everyone piled onto the porch.

It was the biggest herd of walkers I'd seen yet. There were at least two hundred of them. I tried to keep from whimpering, and pressed into my Dad's side.

"Patricia," Herschel said. "Kill the lights."

"Maybe it's like the herd we saw out on the highway." Glenn said. "And they'll just pass by. Shouldn't we just go in the house?"

"Not unless there's a secret tunnel I don't know about." Dad said. "A herd that size would tear the house down."

This time the whimper did escape my lips and my Dad looked down at me.

"I ain't gonna let nothing happen to you." He said.

"I know." My fingers went back to my mouth and he jerked them away, inspecting my nails. "Chewin' you fingernails again? I thought that was a habit we broke you of."

"I decided to take it up again." I said. "One of my few luxuries."

"Carl's gone!" Lori burst out of the house.

"What?" Dad turned towards her.

"He's was upstairs and now he's gone!" She looked at me. "Libby have you seen him?"

"No, ma'am." I told her.

"Maybe he's hiding." Glenn suggested.

"He was supposed to be upstairs! We ain't leavin' without my boy!"

"No," Carol said. "We'll look again, we're gonna find him."

"I'm gonna help look for him." I told my Dad. He nodded.

"You stay close to an adult." He said.

"I will."

We did another sweep of the house, still no Carl.

"Oh God." Lori wailed.

"We'll find him." I told her. "I ain't about to lose another friend."

A plan had been formulated while we'd been searching. They were going to kill as many walkers as they could and lure the rest off with the vehicles.

"You sure?" Dad had asked Herschel, who had nodded.

"This is my farm." He said. "I'll die here."

Dad nodded and chuckled a little bit. "It's as good a night as any." He looked at me. "You stay with Lori and Carol." He said before hopping over the railing and dropping to the ground.

* * *

Beth, Patricia, and I watched from a crack between the boards.

"Barn's on fire." Beth said.

"Maybe Rick set it to draw them in." Patricia suggested.

"He ain't here!" Lori hurried down the stairs. "What do I do?!"

"Keep calm!" Carol told her. "Maybe he snuck outside to look for Rick, or to go after Randall himself."

"Maybe he set the fire." I suggested.

"Did any one check the basement?" Patricia asked.

"I will." I said.

"I'll go too!" Beth said. I could tell the women didn't like it, but they didn't say anything.

We hurried down the steps, looking for him.

"_Carl_!" I hissed loudly. "Dammit, where _is_ he?"

"He sure doesn't like to listen, does her?" Beth asked. She shined the flashlight around.

"No, he doesn't." I agreed. _"Carl_!"

When we were sure he wasn't down there, we hurried back up to the porch.

"He ain't down there!" I said.

"He isn't in the shed either, I looked!" Lori said.

"I check the attic, not there either." Carol told us.

"If he followed his Daddy, he went this way!" Lori started to run off the porch, but Carol stopped her.

"If he is out there, you'll just lead them right to him!" She said. "We've got to get out of here!"

"Not without my boy!" Lori shouted.

"You've got to trust!" Carol told her. "If he's alive, he's gonna need his mother! Come on now, let's go!"

"Get the others!" Lori said.

I ran in the house and grabbed my duffle, where I'd been keeping my most important things: Grandma Dixon's old doll, my MP3 player, and the prom photo of my Dad and Skyla were among them.

"Beth, Patricia, we gotta go!" Carol shouted. "Libby, come on!"

Lori was calling for Carl and shooting.

"Now, Lori!" Carol called. "We gotta go now!"

"Herschel, its time to go!" Lori called out to the elderly man has he stood on the small rise, shooting into the crowd of walkers. "Herschel!"

He didn't respond, just kept shooting.

I was holding Beth's hand and we were running across the yard when a walker grabbed Patricia. She screamed and Beth and I both pulled on her, but it didn't matter. The thing had her.

Lori grabbed me and threw me back and then tried to get Beth, but she didn't want to let go. It took the two of us to get her moving again. Patricia was screaming behind us as we headed for the car.

Andrea and T-Dog pulled up beside us in the old blue pickup.

"Get in!" Andrea shouted.

"Dad! Dad!" Beth was screaming for her father and I wanted to start calling out for mine too.

Where was he? Was he safe?

"Get Carol!" Lori shouted to Andrea. "She went that way!"

It was absolute pandemonium. Lori shoved me and Beth into the truck. I was squashed next to T-Dog and Beth was clutching me and we were both screaming and crying.

"She's lost!" Lori shouted as the walkers began to close in on us. "Drive! Drive!"

So T-Dog drove.

* * *

I don't know for how long, but when Lori spoke again, it was light outside.

"We gotta turn around."

"Straight back to that herd?" T-Dog asked. "Um…no."

"The highway is back there; that's where they'll be." She said. "Rick will go back to where we first broke down, and Glenn too."

"But we're headed East." T-Dog told her. "Getting to the coast. We should've done that from the jump. We got a shot to get out of here in one piece."

"I've got to find Carl." Lori said. "He may have escaped with some one. And theses girls… we need to find their families."

"I want my Daddy!" I cried, aware of the fact that I sounded four instead of fourteen, and not caring. "I want him now!"

"I hate to say it," T-Dog said. "But they're on their own. There's no way to even start looking."

"You're wrong!" Lori cried.

"We can't go back." T-Dog told us. "I'm sorry, but its suicide."

"All right." Lori said calmly. "Then let me out."

She tried to open the door.

"Hey! Hey!" T-Dog skidded on the brakes and practically threw me into the dash. "Whoa!"

"You turn around!" Lori said to him. "Or you let us out right now!"

"I should do it you know!" He retorted.

"Okay." Lori said and she started to climb from the cab. Beth and I made to follow.

"You're outta your damn minds!" He said, but he started turning the truck around.

* * *

When we got there, and saw that others were safe, the first thing I did was stumble out of the truck and into my Dad's arms, sobbing.

"I didn't know!" I cried. "I didn't know if you were alive…or safe…or…"

"I'm fine." He told me. He hugged me to him so hard I felt the bones in my back pop. "_Shh shh_, it's all right now. I'm okay."

"How'd you find these guys?" Rick asked.

"I saw this guys taillights zigzagging all over the road." Dad said. His voice sounded husky and I realized he was nearly crying too. "Figured he had to be Asian, driving like that."

Glenn snorted. "Good one."

"Where's the rest of us?" Dad asked.

"We're the only ones who made it so far." Rick answered him.

"Shane?" Lori asked, questioningly. Rick shook his head.

"Andrea?" Glenn asked.

"She saved me," Carol said. I let go of my Dad long enough to hug her too. "Then I lost her."

"We saw her go down." T-Dog said.

"Patricia?" Herschel wondered.

Beth shook her head. "They got her too." She said, her voice teary. "Took her right in front of me and Libby. I was holding on to her Daddy, and Libby had my other side and…and she just…" She looked around. "What about Jimmy? Did you see Jimmy?"

"He was in the RV." Rick told her. "It got overrun."

Beth began to cry out loud then and I rested my head against my father's stomach.

"You definitely saw them take Andrea?" Carol asked. Lori nodded.

"There were walkers everywhere." She said.

"But did you see her?" Carol persisted. No one answered.

"I'll go back." Dad started for his bike.

"No!" I said in a strangled whisper, clutching him tightly.

"No." Rick said.

"We can't just leave her." Dad said.

"We don't even know if she's there." Lori told him.

"She isn't there." Rick said. "She isn't. She's somewhere else or she's dead. There's no way to find her."

"We're not even gonna look for her?" Glenn asked.

"No," Rick told him. "We gotta keep moving."

"I say we head East." T-Dog said.

"We need to stay off the main roads." Dad said. He untangled himself from me. "The bigger the road the more walkers. Like this asshole." He pulled his bow from the back of the bike. "I got him."

And he shot him.

"You wanna ride with your Dad?" Carol asked me. I shook my head. I liked the way she looked on the back of my Dad's bike. Maybe they would…I shook my head again.

"No, the new of riding on that thing has worn off." I said. "It hurts my butt. I'll ride with Carl."

Dad looked at me. "You sure?" I nodded.

"I'm sure."

And we started on our way.

* * *

**Authors Note's: And so ends Coming Undone. Yes, my friends, its over! Well, okay not totally over. I will have the next story in this little series of mine, which will be called _Falling Away From Me_, up tomorrow or the next day, so watch for it so you can see how Libby's story continues! I do want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who read, followed, and reviewed this story! I had no idea it would take off like it has and I hope the second one does as well as this one!**


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